Judge Dismisses Trump Admin Lawsuit Against Federal Court in Maryland

The judge said he didn’t have authority to block the court and that the defendants enjoyed immunity.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen, center, speaks with the media in Charlottesville Federal Court in Charlottesville, Va, on March 27, 2019. Andrew Shurtleff/The Daily Progress via AP

The Trump administration has lost its unusual lawsuit against a federal court in Maryland that set up a process of automatically blocking deportations for individuals who challenged their detention by the federal government.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen said in an opinion on Aug. 26 that the federal judges in Maryland, each of whom had been sued by the administration, enjoyed judicial immunity from what he described as “potentially calamitous litigation.”