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Photo: Steve Helber/AP Photo

In an unprecedented move, the Justice Department sued all 15 federal judges in Maryland in June, alleging that a recent order from the state’s U.S. district court impeded the government’s immigration actions. This week, the lawsuit was dismissed by a judge President Donald Trump appointed during his first term.

In his decision issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen of Virginia wrote that the Justice Department’s arguments might have gotten traction if it used the proper channels to voice its complaints, yet it was unsurprising that the federal government “chose a different, and more confrontational, path entirely.”

Judge Cullen said he had no choice but to dismiss the case, writing that doing otherwise would “run counter to overwhelming precedent, depart from longstanding constitutional tradition, and offend the rule of law.”

“In their wisdom, the Constitution’s framers joined three coordinate branches to establish a single sovereign. That structure may occasionally engender clashes between two branches and encroachment by one branch on another’s authority. But mediating those disputes must occur in a manner that respects the Judiciary’s constitutional role,” Cullen wrote.

Cullen also took the Trump administration to task for its attacks on the judiciary, noting that key members of the executive branch and their spokesmen have denounced judges as “rogue,” “unhinged,” and “radical,” among other vitriolic terms.

“Although some tension between the coordinate branches of government is a hallmark of our constitutional system, this concerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate,” he wrote.

Cullen, who previously served as the U.S. Attorney for Virginia’s Western District, was appointed to the region’s federal court in 2020. The judge was tapped to weigh in on the matter after all of the judges on the Maryland federal bench recused themselves from the case.

The Trump administration objected to an order issued by Chief Judge George Russell that barred federal immigration officials from immediately moving to deport detainees that filed a habeas petition for two business days, with the intention of allowing more time for their cases to be reviewed. In its lawsuit, the Justice Department said the Maryland U.S. District Court’s orders “are nothing more than a particularly egregious example of judicial overreach interfering with Executive Branch prerogatives — and thus undermining the democratic process.”

This is not the first time that a Trump-appointed judge has ruled against the administration. In May, U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. of Texas ruled that the government’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan migrants “exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful.” Trump has also previously railed at a ruling against his tariffs policy from the United States Court of International Trade. One of the judges on the three-person panel who decided against the president was Timothy Reif, whom Trump nominated during his first term.

Trump-Appointed Judge Slams White House ‘Smear’ of Judiciary

Trump-Appointed Judge Slams White House ‘Smear’ of Judiciary