Wow! Another Judicial Beatdown

I think beatdown is the operative word for this. Red State has the story:

The 5th Circuit Delivers a Shockingly Ruthless Rebuke of Joe Biden's Lawlessness

To see the kind of language this appellate court is directing at the current regime tells you all you need to know about how the federal judiciary views the regime. Yes, I know, there are liberal judges, too, but the Trump legacy is in place and on the bench. And it’s not just Trump judges. The lawlessness has outraged many other judges, as well.

Do read the whole story, but for a sample of the kind of language the court used …

There are a lot of highlights here. At one point, the court has this to say, countering the government’s claims that the case is moot and that the Biden administration can skip various review processes. Get a load of this language.

DHS’s proposed approach is as unlawful as it is illogical. Under Supreme Court and Fifth Circuit precedent, this case is nowhere near moot. And in any event, the vacatur DHS requests is an equitable remedy, which is unavabile [sic] to parties with unclean hands. The Government’s litigation tactics disqualify it from such equitable relief.

The court here is citing standard equitable doctrine—The Clean Hands Doctrine:

“Clean hands, sometimes called the clean hands doctrine, unclean hands doctrine, or dirty hands doctrine, is an equitable defense in which the defendant argues that the plaintiff is not entitled to obtain an equitable remedy because the plaintiff is acting unethically or has acted in bad faith with respect to the subject of the complaint—that is, with "unclean hands".”

The court also scoffed at the idea that Biden can simply print out a word document and order the ending of a program that impacts the states in such a way without going through any of the legal and legislative review processes. Remember, Democrats celebrated the courts denying Donald Trump the right to end DACA based on the Administrative Procedures Act.

In laughable fashion, Biden thought he could get away with violating the precedent his own party forced into place just a few years ago. Nope, that’s not how any of this works.

The Government also raises a slew of reviewability arguments, contending that no court may ever review the Termination Decision. DHS claims the power to implement a massive policy reversal—affecting billions of dollars and countless people—simply by typing out a new Word document and posting it on the internet. No input from Congress, no ordinary rulemaking procedures, and no judicial review. We address and reject each of the Government’s reviewability arguments and determine that DHS has come nowhere close to shouldering its heavy burden to show that it can make law in a vacuum.

On the merits, the Termination Decision was arbitrary and capricious under the APA.

The beat-down just continues from there, and it is clear that the courts are sick and tired of the Biden administration violating the law and then attempting to game the judicial system to still get what they want.

This case alone is, of course, important. But as an indicator of how the courts will be greeting future regime lawlessness as it comes up before the courts, this takes on added importance. The presumption that the regime is acting lawfully is, for practical purposes, over and done with. These judges are fed up and their lack of the ordinary respect makes their attitude abundantly clear.