Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy appeared Tuesday on Fox News and slammed the judges who he said are hindering President Donald Trump’s efforts to make the government operate more efficiently.
During an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle,” Roy said these judges are misusing the Administrative Procedures Act, a piece of legislation dating back to 1946, to unjustly expand their powers and thwart administrative actions they deem arbitrary or capricious. He said there’s a disconnect between judicial interpretations and legislative intentions.
“The absurdity of the fact that these activist judges are stepping in and trying to tell the president of the United States, who is the chief executive of our government, that he can’t have his designees or himself look at information. Go down and look and make sure that Social Security numbers aren’t duplicated. Go try to expose all of the ridiculous programs that the American people sent him to Washington to expose. [It] tells you how corrupt and how, frankly, self-important judges think they are,” Roy told Laura Ingraham.
Roy criticized what he said is a self-important attitude among judges who believe they can act without limits.
“And they’re using and abusing, you know, the Administrative Procedures Act. You’re very familiar with it, based on your legal background and knowledge, and, you know, they’re using that as what arbitrary and capricious standard to say they can do whatever they want,” Roy said. “And the fact is, they can’t. And that’s one of the things, to answer your question, Congress may need to take a look at, whether we amend that statute or change it in some form or fashion.”
This misuse of authority, Roy said, contrasts with actions taken during the Biden administration.
“So we’ve got to look at the judges themselves, right, and review what are these guys doing. And then how do they think they’re empowered to do it? But consider that in the last administration, Joe Biden literally put out executive orders telling ICE that you can’t even really enforce the law. So criminals can run amok and endanger Americans, but that’s OK,” Roy added.
Roy said that when Trump took steps to verify Social Security records to prevent fraud, he was vilified.
“President Trump wants to go down and look at Social Security data to make sure it’s not being duplicated so our records aren’t being stolen and so we can be protected,” Roy said. “And somehow he’s the bad guy. Or by the way, fire bureaucrats. You got a judge coming in and saying, ‘Oh, the president can’t fire bureaucrats.’ Yes, he can. He’s the chief executive. Of course he can fire bureaucrats.”
Judges have actively blocked Trump’s agenda, which the Department of Justice decried on Monday as “intolerable judicial overreach” following a spending freeze order. They challenged Judge John J. McConnell, Jr.’s decision in the First Circuit Court of Appeals, saying that a judge cannot control the Executive Branch’s budgeting for weeks under the guise of a temporary restraining order.
A federal judge appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan also blocked one part of Trump’s agenda after halting the president’s plan to transfer three transgender women from female to male prison facilities, saying they pose no threat to other inmates. District Judge Royce Lamberth, serving since 1987, temporarily blocked an executive order by Trump mandating that men be housed in men’s prisons, regardless of gender identity, siding with the plaintiffs who say this violates federal law and their constitutional rights.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore
