(NewsNation) — Two House Judiciary subcommittees are holding a joint hearing Tuesday examining judicial power, with a focus on the recent blocks of President Donald Trump’s policies.
Federal judges have been halting President Donald Trump’s actions at a rapid pace. In many cases, the courts are questioning whether the firings of federal workers, the freezing of federal funds and the shuttering of long-running federal offices are unlawful actions by the executive branch and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet and the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government hearing, called “Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts,” is set for 10 a.m. ET.
Before Tuesday’s hearing, the GOP House Judiciary Committee posted a letter that chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent to the House Appropriations Committee asking it to include “language in upcoming funding bills that would limit the ability of rogue judges to misuse nationwide injunctions.”
House Republican leaders say all options are under consideration as they rush to rein in judges.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in his opening statements Tuesday that there’s been a “major malfunction” in the judiciary. He called the judge’s rulings a “new resistance to the Trump administration.”
“The federal judiciary isn’t interpreting the law; it is impeding the presidency,” Issa said.
However, Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia, said Trump’s actions have been “authoritarian, dictatorial” and an “unprecedented use of presidential power to instill fear, intimidate, exact revenge against and punish those who dare to stand up to him.”
“A climate of fear and trepidation has descended upon the nation,” Johnson said, adding that Americans are afraid for the state of democracy.
