Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, filed a new bill Monday aiming to restrain the district court judges that have been issuing restraining orders blocking President Donald Trump’s agenda.
“America’s government cannot function if the legitimate orders of our commander-in-chief can be overridden at the whim of a single district court judge,” Sen. Lee said in a statement on the bill’s introduction.
Left-leaning activist groups have filed lawsuits blocking Trump’s executive orders and other actions, and critics say the groups effectively pick the judges in the cases by selecting favorable jurisdictions in which to sue. In the name of providing temporary relief to injured parties, judges have issued temporary restraining orders and injunctions, ordering the administration not to implement the executive orders.
Critics say this process stymies the president from carrying out his constitutional duties and effectively places judges in control of the executive branch.
Lee said the judges “have presumed to run the military, the civil service, foreign aid, and HR departments across the Executive Branch—blatantly unconstitutional overreach.”
Judges have stayed Trump’s executive actions freezing foreign aid, firing executive branch employees, changing civil service rules, declaring people with gender dysphoria (the painful and persistent condition of identifying with the gender opposite one’s biological sex) unfit for military service, and more.
“This legislation will create a judicial panel to expedite Supreme Court review of these blanket injunctions, preventing unelected radicals in robes from sabotaging the separation of powers,” Lee added.
The “Restraining Judicial Insurrectionists Act of 2025” establishes a three-judge panel to swiftly review injunctions or other forms of declaratory relief against the president and the executive branch, with a quick appeal process to the Supreme Court.
The bill, first reported on by The Washington Examiner, amends 28 USC 2284 to state that any action seeking injunctive or declaratory relief against the executive branch will go to a three-judge district court. The district judge who received the complaint or motion for preliminary injunction will refer the matter to the Chief Justice, who oversees the judiciary. The Chief Justice will select three judges to preside over the case.
A majority of the judges must agree to issue any form of relief, preliminary or permanent. All orders of this temporary court would be directly appealable to the Supreme Court without discretion—the nation’s highest court would be required to take up the case.
Trump’s opponents have criticized the president and other Republicans for calling for judicial impeachment as a remedy for the injunctions, but Lee’s bill would provide a solution from within the judicial branch. Furthermore, Congress has the authority to make changes to the judicial branch like the ones Lee has proposed, so this bill arguably does not represent a threat to the separation of powers.
