More Good News on the Lawfare Front
The Trump Administration Keeps Winning in Court
Back on March 11, 2025, I wrote an article highlighting a couple of the Trump Administration's big wins in the legal fights raging in federal courts all across the Country. While the number of the (often frivolous) legal challenges filed against the Trump Administration is utterly ridiculous, the Fake News Media says very little about the Trump Administration’s victories, while rulings against the Trump Administrationg are relentlessly reported. In this article, I will shine some light on a few more of the Trump Administration’s important legal victories. Among the recent victories are cases involving Refugee Resettlement, efforts to dox (obtain the identities) of DOGE personnel and efforts to block DOGE personnel from working on the dismantling of the rogue agency USAID.
The Refugee Resettlement Case
On March 6, 2025, I wrote an article detailing a ridiculous decision by a Biden-appointed new district judge granting a Preliminary Injunction against President Trump’s Executive Orders temporarily halting Refugee admissions and temporarily pausing foreign aid. In the article, I pointed out the district judge’s ruling was contrary to federal law, since the President of the United States is granted broad authority under multiple federal statutes to bar aliens and the power under the Refugee Resettlement law to set the number of refugees admitted. I wrote:
Put in layman’s terms, federal law grants the President broad, sweeping power to bar aliens from entering the Country, federal law grants the President authority to set the number of refugees who may be admitted into the Country and the exclusion of aliens is a federal executive power subject to limited ability of courts to review and aliens have essentially zero due process rights in the first place. Yet, none of that deterred this judge from substituting his judgment for that of the President.
There are more problems with the district court’s order in the case, but this passage encapsulates the errors. Read my original article for more.
The Trump Administration immediately appealed and sought a stay of the district court’s order while the case is on appeal. A stay would stop the district court’s order from taking effect while the case is appealed, thereby allowing the President’s Executive Orders to remain in effect. Ruling in favor of a stay requires a finding by the higher court the Trump Administration is very likely to win the appeal. In short, a stay granted by the Court of Appeal would, for all practical purposes, win the case for the Trump Administration.
On Tuesday, March 24, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted the Trump Administration's motion to stay the district court’s order, allowing President Trump’s Executive Orders to be enforced while the case is on appeal. The Court of Appeal’s order provides, in part:
(The Court of Appeals allowed the lower court’s preliminary injunction to remain in effect for people granted refugee status before January 20, 2025. “In all other respects,” the district court’s order is suspended.)
When federal appellate courts review requests for a stay pending appeal, there are several factors they consider, but the most important is whether or not the party seeking a stay made a strong showing that he is likely to win the appeal. Thus, as I mentioned above, the Ninth Circuit’s stay is a powerful indicator the Trump Administration will win the appeal.
Chalk one up for Team Trump.
The DOGE Doxxing Case
On his first day in office in this his second term, President Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by Executive Order by renaming and re-tasking the United States Digital Service, a creation of former President Obama, and charging it with maximizing “governmental efficiency and productivity.” Trump put the richest man in the world, billionaire Elon Musk, in charge of DOGE, as a special advisor to the President.
DOGE immediately went to work uncovering and cutting massive government waste. As of this writing the DOGE website reports savings in excess of $130 billion ($130,000,000,000.00).
Democrats are outraged at the notion of government efficiency or anyone working to cut government waste or corruption, so naturally Democrat Attorneys General from 14 States sued in federal court in DC claiming the appointment of Musk violates the Appointments Clause of the Constitution (due to the lack of Senate confirmation of Musk) and that DOGE’s actions are beyond any lawful authority granted to it.
The case is assigned to the notorious, anti-Trump judge Tonya Chutkan. Judge Chutkan was the judge assigned to the illegitimate indictment of President Trump in DC who promoted Democrat talking points about J6 and promptly issued ruling after ruling against President Trump (only to be rebuked by the Supreme Court on Presidential Immunity). Given Judge Chutkan’s history of anti-Trump and anti-conservative statements and endless rulings against Trump, most legal analyists expected her to rule against the Trump Administration.
On March 12, 2025, Judge Chutkan granted a “Motion for Expedited Discovery” giving the Democrat AGs the right to obtain “discovery” from DOGE to find out information about DOGE, its members and the work they are doing. Judge Chutkan ordered the discovery to take place before ruling on the government’s Motion to Dismiss the case. The media characterized the decision as a tremendous blow to DOGE:
Conservative media reported the Judge’s decision would allow doxxing of DOGE workers. (Hence, the moniker the “DOGE Doxxing Case” to identify the litigation.) The court itself characterized the States’ discovery requests as follows:
(What do you think the odds are the identities and personal information of the DOGE personnel would be disclosed or leaked to the public - doxxing the DOGE personnel -once 14 Democrat State Attorneys General and their staff members get their hands on it? Yeah, you can bet your bile duct the names, home addresses, phone numbers, etc…, of every last DOGE worker would be splashed across the internet in short order.)
On Wednesday, March 26, 2025, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Judge Chutkan's discovery order and put the case on hold pending further order of the Court of Appeal. The Hill reported on the Court of Appeal’s decision:
The Court of Appeal ordered Judge Chutkan to rule on the government’s pending Motion to Dismiss the case before the case may proceed. The Appeals Court’s order reads, in part:
The basis for the Trump Administration’s Motion to Dismiss the case is its contention the States lack standing (that a party does not have a direct enough interest in a case or does not suffer a direct harm and therefore cannot sue). If the States lack standing (and they probably do lack standing), the case will be dismissed.
The Court of Appeal’s decision stops the discovery (and potential doxxing of DOGE employees), commands the lower court to rule on the Motion to Dismiss and to “notify this court upon the district court’s disposition of petitioner’s motion to dismiss.” Remember, to qualify for a stay, the Trump Administration had to show a strong showing it is likely to prevail.
The case is not over just yet, but chalk another win up for Team Trump.
The USAID, Get Out of “DOGE” Case
The Trump Administration moved quickly to target waste, graft, inefficiency and corruption at the U.S. Agency for International Development by making massive cuts to the agency's personnel and terminating contracts and expenditures by the agency.
The moves spawned a rash of litigation. One of the suits was filed in federal court in Maryland by 26 unidentified “current and former employees or contractors of USAID.” The plaintiffs made the same "Appointments Clause” and ultra vires claims as the States in the DOGE Doxxing case.
On March 18, 2025, the federal judge presiding over the case, Theodore D. Chuang granted a Preliminary Injunction in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered Elon Musk and DOGE to reinstate all USAID employees and contractors’ access to email, payment, security notification and to stop all efforts at dismantling the agency and more. Fake News Media gleefully reported:
The Trump Administration requested the district court clarify its ruling to see if the court intended to bar the current Deputy Director of USAID, Jeremy Lewin, from doing his job. The judge entered an order on March 20, 2025, finding the deputy director of USAID was also barred by the Preliminary Injunction from being involved in the prohibited DOGE-USAID operations (because he formerly worked with DOGE). Unbelievable. This judge literally prohibited the Deputy Director of this federal agency from doing his job.
The Trump Administration promptly appealed and requested a stay of the district court’s Preliminary Injunction pending appeal. On March 28, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted the Trump Administration’s request to stay the lower court's injunction pending appeal:
Once again, this Court of Appeal found the Trump Administration made a “strong showing” it will prevail on the appeal. An excerpt from the Appeals Courts’ order succinctly states its findings:
Chalk up another win for Team Trump.
Conclusion
While literally dozens of frivolous cases were filed against the Trump Administration in the first weeks of Trump’s new term (with more to come, no doubt), the Trump Administration continues to score win after win. As the reporting about pending lawfare against the Trump Administration continues, keep in mind the leftists bringing these lawsuits are cherry-picking favorable courts, populated by leftist Democrat-appointed judges, to file the suits. For this reason, many of the cases will not go well initially for Team Trump. Fake News Media will breathlessly report on the initial set backs for the Administration. Ignore the media hyperbole. Ultimately, the Trump Administration will win virtually every case it should win.
The cases highlighted by me in this article and my earlier article are not the only wins for the Trump Administration. Additionally, the Trump Administration will continue to consistently win the vast majority of the litigation. I plan to write about additional wins for Team Trump in the future. Stay tuned.
(My newest book Fake News Exposed: 25 of the Worst Media Lies about Conservatives, Guns, COVID and Everything Else is available at Amazon. You may also pick up a copy of one of my other books at Amazon as well.)