Jordan Asks House Appropriators to Curb Nationwide Rulings (3)

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) called on appropriators to add language in legislation funding the federal judiciary limiting nationwide injunctions issued by district court judges.

“As you develop appropriations for the federal judiciary, we respectfully urge you to consider appropriate language that would enhance judicial restraint and reaffirm democratic principles,” Jordan wrote in a Monday letter to Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.). The letter was also addressed to Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), who leads the Appropriations Committee panel that oversees funding for the judiciary.

Using the appropriations process to target national injunctions is the latest vehicle for Republicans, seeking to punish judges who’ve ruled against the Trump administration as two other approaches appear likely to falter. Senate Judiciary Democrats indicated in interviews they don’t support the nationwide injunction legislation.

Still, targeting judiciary funds would face an uphill battle in the Senate, where even some Republicans have expressed hesitance to cut judiciary appropriations in response to nationwide rulings.

Judiciary Committee members Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C), said Tuesday they wouldn’t support tapping into courts’ funding.

“I don’t necessarily want to use a financial lever. I’d really like to just have good, sound policy,” Tillis said.

Democratic Opposition

Even if Senate Republicans did have full caucus backing, seven Democrats would need to support the effort for legislation to move forward under chamber rules. Democratic leaders have voiced opposition to such an effort since House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) floated it last week.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the notion of cutting the judiciary’s appropriations a “thinly veiled effort to muzzle the courts.”

Such an action “would disrupt the constitutional balance,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee panel that funds the courts.

“I cannot believe there’s a single Democrat who would vote to defund specific federal courts in response to decisions that were not to the liking of the president,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a Judiciary Committee member, said in an interview last week.

In his letter, Jordan said appropriators should consider language prohibiting the use of “taxpayer dollars and federal resources to issue or enforce” injunctions beyond “the specific parties in front of an issuing court in a particular case.”

He also suggested language limiting appropriated funds “related to the issuance and enforcement of nationwide injunctions, including using court resources to compel compliance, impose fines, or conduct contempt proceedings related to such injunctions.”

However, Jordan clarified that the spending committee should “appropriately fund” judicial security measures to protect judges and court employees.

Messaging Vehicles

Other Republican efforts to rein in federal judges appear to be losing some momentum.

At a hearing Tuesday on “judicial overreach,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who leads the Judiciary Committee’s courts panel and introduced the House’s nationwide injunction bill, indicated Republican attempts to impeach judges who ruled against the Trump administration are political messaging vehicles that won’t advance.

Issa suggested to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who was testifying at the hearing, that lawmakers often introduce measures “because they were popular and felt strongly within their districts, whether or not they were moving anywhere,” which he said would include the impeachment resolutions.

Gingrich agreed, saying the resolutions are “political symbols, not legislative symbols.”

House leaders initially planned to vote on the nationwide injunction bill this week. However, a measure to move forward with that vote failed on the floor Tuesday over a separate issue related to proxy voting for new parents.

Senate Republicans have also rallied behind the House effort to curb nationwide injunctions. On Monday, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced a similar bill to end universal injunctions, and his committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on nationwide injunctions on Wednesday.

Senate Democrats predict Republicans in that chamber won’t have the votes to overcome a filibuster.

“I don’t, and I don’t see much Republican credibility on this subject, because they relished nationwide injunctions when their MAGA judges were doing that to President Biden,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).