President Donald Trump and his administration were handed a critical win from a federal judge this week.
And, surprisingly, it came from a judge put on the bench by former President Joe Biden.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali dismissed a lawsuit from the Democratic National Committee targeting a number of Trump’s many executive orders Tuesday, according to Fox News.
Specifically, this DNC lawsuit claimed that some of Trump’s executive orders would erode the Federal Election Commission’s independence.
One of the key orders in question involved a Feb. 18 executive order entitled “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies.”
“The Constitution vests all executive power in the President and charges him with faithfully executing the laws,” Trump stated in the order. “Since it would be impossible for the President to single-handedly perform all the executive business of the Federal Government, the Constitution also provides for subordinate officers to assist the President in his executive duties.
“In the exercise of their often-considerable authority, these executive branch officials remain subject to the President’s ongoing supervision and control.”
“However, previous administrations have allowed so-called ‘independent regulatory agencies’ to operate with minimal Presidential supervision,” Trump continued. “These regulatory agencies currently exercise substantial executive authority without sufficient accountability to the President, and through him, to the American people.
“Moreover, these regulatory agencies have been permitted to promulgate significant regulations without review by the President. ”
The EO, in a bid to ensure greater accountability and transparency, ordered that “it shall be the policy of the executive branch to ensure Presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch. Moreover, all executive departments and agencies, including so-called independent agencies, shall submit for review all proposed and final significant regulatory actions to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Executive Office of the President before publication in the Federal Register.”
This mandate apparently rankled the DNC, which filed the lawsuit in question just 10 days after the order was signed.
Much to their chagrin, the DNC failed to prove the threat of “concrete and imminent injury,” according to Ali.
Or, as Politico summarized it: “District Judge Amir Ali said the Democratic Party groups’ case was simply too speculative.”
The outlet also pointed out a fascinating wrinkle in this lawsuit case being smacked down: Judge Ali is no favorite of the Trump administration, as he was the one whose ruling effectively tied the hands of DOGE when it came to laying off USAID employees.
“[The] possibility that the president and attorney general would take the extraordinary step of issuing a directive to the FEC or its Commissioners purporting to bind their interpretation of FECA is not sufficiently concrete and imminent to create Article III injury,” Ali ruled, according to Fox.
Perhaps unsurprising given his prior ruling on USAID, Ali did note that “this Court’s doors are open” for the DNC to re-file its lawsuit, should it find the evidence needed to resuscitate this now-dying lawsuit.
Trump had not publicly commented on Ali’s ruling as of Wednesday afternoon.
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