The Justice Department Sues All The Federal Judges In Maryland

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Department of Justice has taken the rare step of suing all of the federal District Court judges in Maryland, after the Maryland court issued a 48-hour pause in every case where an immigrant was challenging their removal from the United States. We examine why this lawsuit is so unusual and how it fits into the Trump Administration's larger attitude toward the judicial branch.

This episode: political correspondent Ashley Lopez, Justice correspondent Carrie Johnson, and senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson.

This podcast was produced by Casey Morell & Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, it's Ashley. Before we get started, I have a quick favor to ask. We want to hear from you. Send us your timestamps of what you're getting up to this summer, whether you're out and about or just hanging out. Record a voice memo on your phone and send it to NPR Politics at NPR.org with the subject line, timestamp. And we might just use it on the show. And if you need a reminder of what a
0:21.3	timestamp sounds like, just listen right now. Hi, this is Rob, waiting at Dulles Airport to
0:27.5	fly to Portugal, where I'll be competing with my border callie Typhon in the Senior Agility World
0:32.6	Championships. Wow. This podcast was recorded at 12.55 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 9th, 2025.
0:41.0	Things may have changed by the time you listen to this podcast, but I'll hopefully be coming
0:45.4	home with ribbons and definitely with my best boy.
0:51.7	I love it. Dog people activated. That is so exciting. I want an update on that competition for sure.
0:58.0	I didn't know that senior dogs have their own thing. That makes a lot of sense, though.
1:01.1	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics. I'm Carrie Johnson.
1:06.6	I cover the Justice Department. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent.
1:12.0	And today we're talking about an unusual move by the Justice Department to sue all of the federal judges in Maryland.
1:18.9	Carrie, this is your reporting.
1:20.4	Can you explain where this is all coming from and why specifically Maryland?
1:24.8	Yeah, sure.
1:25.3	So back in May, the chief judge in the district of Maryland
1:29.9	issued an order basically saying for any migrant who filed a habeas petition with the court,
1:37.0	basically challenging the legality of their deportation, that that case would be frozen for 48 hours
1:44.0	to give the judges in Maryland time to consider
1:46.9	the legal arguments and the status of that person. And all of this came down in the wake of
1:54.3	the Maryland Man Kilmer, Abrago Garcia, who the Justice Department later admitted was deported to El Salvador in an
2:03.6	administrative error. There have been a lot of legal clashes about whether he got proper due process,
2:09.7	what exactly he did or didn't do. But what it appears to be is that these judges in Maryland
	...

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