House Republicans will vote next week on a bill to limit nationwide injunctions from federal district judges, amid party frustration over rulings blocking President Trump’s agenda.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise announced on social media plans for a floor vote next week on the No Rogue Rulings Act, a bill from Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, that cleared the Judiciary Committee earlier this month.
The measure would “limit the judicial overreach of partisan federal judges issuing political nationwide injunctions to impede President Trump’s agenda the majority of American voters elected him to carry out,” Mr. Scalise said.
Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, introduced similar legislation in his chamber on Monday.
Several district court judges have issued nationwide orders halting Trump administration executive actions, drawing frustration from Republicans and the president himself.
Mr. Trump has called for some of the judges to be impeached and focused much of his ire on U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who tried to stop deportation flights of Venezuelans who the administration says are members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
The scheduling of a vote on Mr. Issa’s bill is designed in part to help clamp down the calls for impeachment — for which House Republicans are unlikely to have the votes, given their threadbare majority.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on social media over the weekend that his conference was “working overtime to limit the abuses of activist federal judges.” He said that would include a Judiciary Committee hearing to “expose the worst offenders” and to move “urgent legislative action.”
The speaker mentioned Mr. Issa’s bill would be part of the legislative plan but did not specify when the vote would take place.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, said in a Fox News interview on Monday that Mr. Johnson had told him he’d like to bring Mr. Issa’s bill to the floor next week.
“Instead of these federal district judges issuing an injunction that applies to the entire country, we think it should be limited to the parties of the case in that respective jurisdiction,” Mr. Jordan said of the bill.
He said the House and Senate Judiciary Committees will hold hearings starting next week on the broader issue of judges overstepping their authority and focus on decisions that appear politically targeted against Mr. Trump.
“Particularly when you look at Judge Boasberg, it starts to look like this is getting totally political from this guy,” Mr. Jordan said. “Remember, he’s also the judge who was part of the whole Trump-Russia FISA court, granting those warrants that allowed the Comey FBI to spy on President Trump’s campaign.”
Judge Boasberg is investigating whether the Trump administration intentionally violated his order requiring the U.S. to stop or turn around three deportation flights carrying more than 200 Venezuelans suspected of being Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador.
On Monday, the judge issued a new ruling that the Venezuelans declared alien enemies under a 1798 law are entitled to an individual judicial review in which the government must prove they are members of the gang before they can be ousted.
Mr. Jordan said Judge Boasberg’s order to turn the planes around was a “crazy decision” and “makes no sense.” He said the administration’s deportation order is both constitutionally and statutorily on “solid ground.”
“The Alien Enemies Act, predatory incursion,” Mr. Jordan said, citing the 1798 law the president cited for his authority to deport the suspected Tren de Aragua members. “That’s certainly what this was, gang members coming here, illegally, doing terrible things.”
