A federal judge in Texas has issued an order so extreme that it may rise to the level of impeachable conduct, Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern argued Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee who previously tried to strike down the Affordable Care Act and ruled against the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, issued an order this week directing Rhode Island Hospital to hand over private medical records and Social Security numbers of transgender minors who received gender-affirming care.
Stern wrote that O’Connor’s order represents “an extreme abuse of power that verges on impeachable misconduct.”
“He has absolutely no authority to prevent any party from seeking relief in another court, let alone the home courts with natural jurisdiction over this dispute,” wrote Stern.
O’Connor issued an injunction barring the hospital from seeking relief in Rhode Island’s federal courts, or from “aiding and abetting” anyone else who tries.
“O’Connor’s massive overreach seems designed to tee up a constitutional crisis over the ability of MAGA judges to facilitate the administration’s persecution of blue-state residents many miles away,” wrote Stern.
Days earlier, a Rhode Island federal judge had already quashed the underlying Justice Department subpoena, calling DOJ’s conduct in the case “appalling” and showing “reckless disregard for the duty of candor.” Stern noted that seven other courts had previously blocked similar DOJ subpoenas against hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors before the department took its case to O’Connor’s Fort Worth courtroom.
“A functioning Congress would investigate whether he has so grievously violated his oath as to merit impeachment,” Stern wrote.
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