Four federal judges in one of the nation’s most conservative states are making life miserable for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice, issuing a series of sharply critical rulings in unusually blunt language.
According to Politico’s Kyle Cheney, West Virginia has only five federal judges. In a state where Donald Trump captured 70 percent of the vote in 2024, four of these judges have forcefully challenged the administration’s immigration enforcement operations, surprising observers with their directness and refusal to accept DOJ arguments. The fifth judge, Trump appointee Frank Volk, has not yet ruled on the mass detention policy. The other four judges have issued a series of adverse rulings in recent weeks, threatening “legal consequences” if the administration and state allies continue detaining individuals in ways the judges have deemed unconstitutional. Those consequences could include civil fines or contempt charges. The judges, overwhelmed with cases related to immigration enforcement, have used their rulings to issue stark warnings about authoritarianism, often in language they acknowledge exceeds traditional judicial restraint. U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin issued a particularly pointed ruling, writing: “Across the interior of the United States, agents of the federal government — masked, anonymous, armed with military weapons, operating from unmarked vehicles, acting without warrants of any kind — are seizing persons for civil immigration violations and imprisoning them without any semblance of due process.” Goodwin stated on Friday: “The Government is wrong. Judges in this district have said that over and over and over.” Other judges have issued similarly scathing assessments. U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers, a Clinton appointee, stated the American dream has been “tarnished” by the administration’s illegal detentions. U.S. District Judge Irene Berger accused the administration of a “lack of respect for the law” after noting that arrests and detentions have continued despite the four judges’ rulings that such actions are illegal.
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