Trump Action Archive

Supporting reports

• Federal judge blocks Trump administration's sanctuary city funding withholding order — US District Judge William Orrick issued a temporary injunction prohibiting the Trump administration from withholding, freezing, or conditioning federal funds to sanctuary cities and counties. The ruling declared portions of Trump's executive orders unconstitutional, finding that the threatened funding cuts caused irreparable harm through budgetary uncertainty and deprivation of constitutional rights. The judge ordered the federal government to provide written notice to all departments and agencies by Monday. San Francisco, Santa Clara County, and over a dozen other municipalities with sanctuary policies brought the lawsuit.

Supporting reports

• Federal judge blocks Trump executive order requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration — US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked President Trump's 25 March executive order that would have added a proof of citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form. The judge ruled that the Constitution grants Congress and the states—not the president—authority to regulate federal elections, and that no statutory delegation permits the president to bypass Congress via executive order. The ruling also blocked a provision requiring federal agencies to assess citizenship before offering voter registration at public assistance agencies. Voting rights advocates warned the requirement would have disenfranchised millions of eligible voters lacking easy access to citizenship documents.

Supporting reports

• Federal judge grants preliminary injunction blocking Trump's executive order on federal union bargaining — Federal judge Paul Friedman in Washington DC granted a preliminary injunction on 25 April blocking Trump's executive order that stripped collective bargaining rights from federal workers. The judge gave attorneys until 2 May to provide a proposal for how the case should proceed. This represents a temporary legal victory for unions challenging the order's constitutionality and the administration's assertion of national security authority.

Supporting reports

• Trump administration reverses student visa revocations after 104 lawsuits filed — The Trump administration was forced to reverse course and restore student visas for thousands of foreign students who had minor legal infractions and cases that had been previously dismissed. Over 104 separate lawsuits had been filed in federal courts challenging the visa revocations. Over 50 judges in 23 different states had already issued temporary injunctions blocking the policy before the reversal was announced.

Supporting reports

• Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denies Trump administration's appeal to halt lower court orders on wrongful deportation case; Judge Wilkinson warns of constitutional breakdown — A panel of judges on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit denied the Trump administration's request to halt Judge Xinis's lower court rulings requiring compliance with orders to facilitate Kilmar Ábrego García's return from El Salvador. In a striking opinion, Judge Harvie Wilkinson, a Ronald Reagan appointee, warned of severe damage if the executive branch continued to defy the judiciary, writing that the branches "come too close to grinding irrevocably against one another" and that "the executive may succeed for a time in weakening the courts, but over time history will script the tragic gap between what was and all that might have been."

Supporting reports

• Judge Boasberg orders government not to deport men to CECOT; administration defies order — Judge James Boasberg issued an order prohibiting the government from deporting men to CECOT and instructing that if planes were already airborne, they be turned around. The administration proceeded with deportations despite the judicial order. On April 16, Boasberg issued an opinion concluding that probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt of court for defying his order.
• US District Judge James Boasberg finds probable cause of contempt against Trump administration for defying deportation halt orders — US District Judge James Boasberg found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court for defying his orders to halt deportations. Boasberg outlined a series of escalating punitive actions he could take against Trump officials, though an appellate court has paused the contempt process while the administration appeals.