Conservatives Denying Trump

Trump Judge Terry Doughty
2025-04-26

Trump's administration deports a 2-year-old US citizen, causing a Trump-appointed judge to wonder if perhaps it was unlawful.

NEW: A federal judge raised alarm Friday that the Trump administration appeared to have deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras with "no meaningful process" — even as her father was fighting to keep her in the country. Details w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

Trump Judge Carl Nichols
2025-02-07

In his order granting a TRO in the dismantling of USAID, Judge Nichols noted:

When the Court asked the government at the TRO hearing what harm would befall the government if it could not immediately place on administrative leave the more than 2000 employees in question, it had no response— beyond asserting without any record support that USAID writ large was possibly engaging in “corruption and fraud.”

NPR reports that the lawyer at the TRO hearing was Brett Shumate.

Reagan Judge John Coughenour to DOJ attorney Brett Shumate
2025-01-23

In the Washington state birthright citizenship case, a Republican judge appointed by Reagan is flabbergasted by Brett Shumate.

BREAKING, via The Seattle Times: Trump's executive order to restrict birthright citizenship is blocked for at least the next two weeks by a Reagan appointee in Seattle who eviscerated the Trump lawyers present defending the order. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
Senior U.S. District Judge John Coughenour on Thursday was blistering in his criticism of Trump’s action as he granted a temporary restraining order that blocks Trump’s executive order from taking effect nationwide.

“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades, I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” Coughenour, an appointee of Ronald Reagan, said from the bench. “There are other times in world history where we look back and people of goodwill can say where were the judges, where were the lawyers?”

Coughenour interrupted before Brett Shumate, a Justice Department attorney, could even complete his first sentence.

“In your opinion Is this executive order constitutional?” he asked.

Shumate said, “it absolutely is.”

“Frankly I have difficulty understanding how a member of the Bar could state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order,” Coughenour said. “It just boggles my mind.”