How much authority should district judges have?

JerryBobCo

It seems that every time President Trump issues a controversial executive order, someone on the left finds a liberal district judge who stays the order.

And, not to single out liberal judges, conservative judges did the same to some of Obama's executive orders.

So, the question is the following.  Should a district judges, who is appointed and not elected, have the authority to over rule a presidential order that affects the entire country?  I realize that such stays are usually challenged and go up through the court system, and sometimes even end up at the supreme court, but that process takes months or even years.

Opinions, please.

Jayhawker

They serve at the pleasure of the President....Trump's biggest foul up was not cleaning house after he was elected...Were it me, there would have been no holdovers from any previous administration...

Bigslug

A good topic for discussion that I'm eager to see pan out.

On the surface, it does indeed seem like the private telling the general that he can't order the charge.  However, the simple fact is that folks in the legislative and executive are popularly elected, not necessarily educated in constitutional issues (sad but true) and subject to a lot of knee-jerk whims of their time.  The judiciary is SUPPOSED to be the flag-waver that says "Ummm. . .slow down there, boys.  There's some things you haven't thought through".  That taking it all the way down to the lower levels of the judiciary is apparently within the rules is probably an extension of the wishes of those founding fathers who felt that the body that governs best is the body that governs least.

Frustrating if it's your side getting held up, but NOBODY being allowed to move 100% unilaterally ain't a bad thing.  Plenty of examples for why that is in the 20th Century.  At least that way there's some deliberation and consensus before the pogroms start.

alphasigmookie

Jayhawker said:

They serve at the pleasure of the President....Trump's biggest foul up was not cleaning house after he was elected...Were it me, there would have been no holdovers from any previous administration...

I'm pretty sure that's absolutely not true. While the president gets to appoint most of the judges and they are confirmed by the senate, he cannot fire them as the constitution intended. It's 3 EQUAL branches of government.

JerryBobCo said:

It seems that every time President Trump issues a controversial executive order, someone on the left finds a liberal district judge who stays the order.

And, not to single out liberal judges, conservative judges did the same to some of Obama's executive orders.

So, the question is the following.  Should a district judges, who is appointed and not elected, have the authority to over rule a presidential order that affects the entire country?  I realize that such stays are usually challenged and go up through the court system, and sometimes even end up at the supreme court, but that process takes months or even years.

Opinions, please.

I'm with Bigslug on this one. I didn't see anyone complaining about "activist judges" when the judge in CA struck down the magazine ban? In the end these rulings are often just the first step in a long process that goes through multiple levels of courts and often ends up at the supreme court.

Jayhawker

alphasigmookie said:

Jayhawker said:

They serve at the pleasure of the President....Trump's biggest foul up was not cleaning house after he was elected...Were it me, there would have been no holdovers from any previous administration...

I'm pretty sure that's absolutely not true. While the president gets to appoint most of the judges and they are confirmed by the senate, he cannot fire them as the constitution intended. It's 3 EQUAL branches of government.

JerryBobCo said:

It seems that every time President Trump issues a controversial executive order, someone on the left finds a liberal district judge who stays the order.

And, not to single out liberal judges, conservative judges did the same to some of Obama's executive orders.

So, the question is the following.  Should a district judges, who is appointed and not elected, have the authority to over rule a presidential order that affects the entire country?  I realize that such stays are usually challenged and go up through the court system, and sometimes even end up at the supreme court, but that process takes months or even years.

Opinions, please.

I'm with Bigslug on this one. I didn't see anyone complaining about "activist judges" when the judge in CA struck down the magazine ban? In the end these rulings are often just the first step in a long process that goes through multiple levels of courts and often ends up at the supreme court.

And then turned right around and stayed the judgement...

I left out the "If" at the beginning of my post...

Varmintmist

Striking down the mag ban was not creating law. It was not an activist move. It was stating that the new law is unconstitutional and therefore is not legal.

earlyagain

Check and balance.