About 92 percent of judges who blocked President Donald Trump’s first-term agenda were appointed by Democrats, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) says. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calls it a “judicial coup d’état.”
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, McClintock cited research from the Harvard Law Review, published last year, which found that of the 64 nationwide injunctions issued in Trump’s first term in office, 92 percent were delivered by Democrat-appointed judges.
“That at least suggests a rather partisan tilt to all of this, and it’s not being done even-handedly,” McClintock said.
“Well, I think if you look at the recent reports from various polling firms, clearly a majority of Americans believe that no single district judge should be allowed to issue a nationwide injunction,” Gingrich, who testified at the hearing, said in response:
This is clearly a judicial coup d’état. You don’t have this many judges issuing this many nationwide injunctions, all of them coming from the same political ideological background, and [we’re] just assuming it’s all random efforts of justice. This is a clear effort to stop the scale of change that President Trump represents. [Emphasis added]
Most recently, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) filed Articles of Impeachment against Obama-appointed Judge James Boasberg, who has sought to block Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members from the United States.
Similarly, four judges have blocked Trump from ending birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens. Two of the four judges were appointed by Democrats.
Also, Obama-appointed Judge Amy Berman Jackson has tried to stop Trump from eliminating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Clinton-appointed Judge Matthew Kennelly has attempted to prevent Trump from eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs within the federal government.
Biden-appointed Judge Loren AliKhan, in February, stopped Trump from freezing federal grants and loans to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as did Obama-appointed Judge John McConnell.
Days ago, Biden-appointed Judge Brian Murphy blocked Trump from fast-tracking deportations of suspected gang members and other illegal aliens to countries like El Salvador that are not their native origin.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
