Donald Trump suffers flurry of legal losses

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has suffered a succession of legal defeats over the past week on subjects ranging from blocking diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, withholding funding from “sanctuary” jurisdictions and blocking a proof-of-citizenship requirement for the federal voter registration form.

Newsweek has contacted the White House press office for comment on Friday via email outside of regular office hours.

Since his inauguration on January 20, Trump has signed a succession of executive orders including declaring a national emergency on the southern border over illegal immigration, ordering federal agencies to scrap DEI initiatives and penalizing schools that allow transgender individuals to participate in girls’ sports.With the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives under narrow Republican control, the courts have emerged as the main block to Trump’s agenda, infuriating the president and his allies like Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk. Judges have recently blocked or suspended efforts by the Trump administration to ban transgender people from the military, abolish the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and to place restrictions on birthright citizenship.

On Thursday, US District Judge William Orrick ruled that an executive order issued by Trump to block sanctuary jurisdictions. Orrick, said the administration could not enforce this executive order in the 16 cities and counties which brought the case, including San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Seattle.

The judge concluded the order could violate the Fifth Amendment by being unconstitutionally vague, the 10th Amendment by requiring local officials to enforce federal migration law and Congress’ “power of the purse” over federal spending.

Thursday also saw a judge block the Trump administration’s plan to add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form.filed a legal challenge arguing it was unconstitutional. On Thursday, New Hampshire based U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty ruled that a Trump administration directive which allows federal funding to be cut from public schools that operate DEI programs could violate teachers First Amendment rights and may also be unconstitutionally vague. The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Education Association.

According to McCafferty, an Obama appointee, a letter sent to schools in April “does not even define what a ‘DEI program’ is.”

States were given until the end of Thursday to submit certification of their schools’ compliance, with some indicating they wouldn’t comply with the order, the Associated Press reported.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon has warned of potential funding cuts if states do not return the form by Friday.

Separated in Maryland, US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee in 2019, ordered the directive to be postponed after concluding it could force teachers to select between “being injured through suppressing their speech or through facing enforcement for exercising their constitutional rights.” The case was brought by the American Federation of Teachers, a major union.

A preliminary injunction against the directive’s enforcement was also issued by a judge in Washington D.C. in response to a case brought by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Gallagher ruled on Wednesday the administration had broken a 2019 settlement agreement by deporting a Venezuelan man to El Salvador in March.She instructed the Trump administration to make a “good faith request” to the government of El Salvador for the return of the 20-year-old man.

Another federal judge ordered the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., but thus far it has declined to do so. The Trump administration claims Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang and insists he won’t be allowed back into the country. Abrego Garcia and his legal team denied he’s a member of MS-13, but two judges, in separate rulings, concluded he was, based on confidential information provided to the court. He was shielded from deportation to El Salvador because he said he’d be targeted by MS-13’s gangland rivals.