U.S. President Donald Trump is increasingly requesting the Supreme Court to overturn rulings by judges that block decisions related to his policies.
As judges continue to block his executive orders and rulings in lower federal courts, Trump has returned to a tactic that he used with great success during his first term with the Supreme Court.
In the past week alone, and six times since Trump took office in January, the Department of Justice has asked the country’s highest court, which holds a conservative majority, to hear cases much earlier than usual.
The administration is using emergency appeals, as it faces more than 130 lawsuits concerning the numerous executive orders Trump has signed so far.
Federal judges have overturned decisions from his administration over 40 times, issuing temporary bans and preliminary orders, according to the Department of Justice’s filing with the Supreme Court.
The administration is increasingly using the Supreme Court to not only rule in its favor but also send a message to federal judges, whom Trump and his allies accuse of overstepping their authority.
In his first term, the Department of Justice filed emergency appeals with the Supreme Court 41 times and won fully or at least partially in 28 of those cases. By contrast, the Obama and George W. Bush administrations sought the Court’s emergency assistance only eight times during 16 years.
Cases before the Supreme Court typically wait to be decided for months. Emergency decisions, however, can be announced within a week or even a few days, and they are usually made without the detailed legal reasoning that typically accompanies high court rulings.
