The Judiciary Pushback Against Trump’s Agenda

How courts across the country have responded to the president’s immigration agenda

May 3, 2025 - 15:17
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The Judiciary Pushback Against Trump’s Agenda

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Donald Trump is shaking up his Cabinet, while his immigration agenda faces mounting pushback from the courts. Panelists on Washington Week With The Atlantic joined to discuss.

A Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas has called the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act “unlawful”—and was among other judges from across the country who have ruled against the president.

“The defining fact of the first three months of this second term of Trump is that so many of the institutions that so successfully opposed him in the first term have been absent or in retreat,” Michael Scherer, an Atlantic staff writer, said last night. “The one exception to that is the legal process.” Although judges “operate at a different tempo than politicians or executive orders,” he added, “you have seen in the last few weeks a really dramatic move by the judiciary to step in.”

Joining the guest moderator and White House correspondent at PBS News Hour, Laura Barrón-López, to discuss this and more: Leigh Ann Caldwell, the chief Washington correspondent at Puck; Michael Scherer, a staff writer at The Atlantic; Ali Vitali, the host of Way Too Early on MSNBC; Alexander Ward, a national-security reporter at The Wall Street Journal.

Watch the full episode here.