Trump and the courts

NY Times - A federal judge on Thursday extended an order that prevented the Trump administration from freezing billions in congressionally approved funds to 22 states and the District of Columbia. The judge found that the administration had overstepped in trying to stop the agencies from using money appropriated by Congress.

The ruling, which builds on the judge’s temporary order instructing the government to keep disbursing the funds, sets up a broader clash between Democratic states over the Trump administration’s efforts to align spending with the president’s agenda.

In an opinion handed down on Thursday morning, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the Federal District Court for the District of Rhode Island, said the case amounted to executive overreach.  “Here, the executive put itself above Congress,” he wrote. “It imposed a categorical mandate on the spending of congressionally appropriated and obligated funds without regard to Congress’s authority to control spending.”

Roll Call - A federal judge in Washington ordered the Trump administration to reinstate a member of the National Labor Relations Board on Thursday, finding her firing without cause violated federal law. Trump officials in January fired Gwynne Wilcox, who was serving as chair of the board, without stating a reason. The firing left the five-member board without a quorum required to function and Wilcox filed a lawsuit.

Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia decided the issue in Wilcox v. Trump et al. in a more permanent way, rather than with a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunctions that other judges have issued in other challenges to Trump actions.

Howell wrote in an opinion that Congress passed a statute that NLRB members cannot be removed from office without cause, and a nearly century-old Supreme Court precedent protects members of multi-member agency boards from removal. Howell noted that allowing Trump to remove Wilcox would keep the NLRB from functioning and effectively paralyze enforcement of federal labor law.

“The President seems intent on pushing the bounds of his office and exercising his power in a manner violative of clear statutory law to test how much the courts will accept the notion of a presidency that is supreme,” Howell wrote.

Howell criticized Trump’s actions and holding himself out as king. “A President who touts an image of himself as a ‘king’ or a ‘dictator,’ perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution,” Howell wrote.

NBC News - A federal judge gave the Trump administration until Monday to pay its debts to several nonprofit groups and aid organizations affected by an order to freeze foreign assistance and shut down USAID.