Activist judges are a problem. And they’re at it again.
But now Homeland Security eviscerated a Clinton-era judge for defying the Supreme Court.
The Trump administration is blasting a federal judge for temporarily blocking the government’s effort to end Temporary Protected Status for South Sudan, arguing the decision flies directly in the face of a recent Supreme Court ruling that stripped lower courts of the authority to intervene in such cases.
DHS Accuses Judge of “Open Defiance” of High Court
U.S. District Judge Patti Saris on Thursday granted an administrative stay in African Communities Together v. Mullin, preserving TPS protections for South Sudanese nationals while she considers whether plaintiffs may amend their lawsuit and pursue renewed relief on constitutional grounds. The order temporarily freezes the administration’s Nov. 6, 2025, decision ending South Sudan’s TPS designation.
“Another rogue district judge just postponed the termination of TPS for South Sudan,” DHS general counsel James Percival wrote on X, slamming the decision. “This is open defiance of the Supreme Court, plain and simple!”
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, echoed that criticism, arguing Saris lacked any authority to issue relief following the Supreme Court’s recent TPS ruling.
“She has no right to ‘maintain the status quo,'” von Spakovsky told Fox News Digital. “No jurisdiction means no jurisdiction and under the applicable law, the only proper course of judicial action is to dismiss the lawsuits, explaining that based on the law and the Supreme Court’s decision, she has no jurisdiction to entertain any claims in her courtroom.”
Legal Experts Say Judges Should Be Disciplined for Ignoring Precedent
Von Spakovsky argued the Supreme Court’s June decision in Mullin v. Doe reaffirmed that federal law largely bars courts from reviewing or blocking the government’s TPS termination decisions, and that the ruling’s logic applies equally to South Sudan even though the underlying case involved Syrian and Haitian nationals.
“These decisions on Sudanese nationals need to be overturned by the Supreme Court in emergency appeals and the judges need to be disciplined for their misconduct in refusing to follow the Supreme Court decision and the federal law that bans them from questioning decisions made by the executive branch on TPS status,” he said.
The criticism stems from the Supreme Court’s June 25 decision in Mullin v. Doe, in which a 6-3 majority held that the TPS statute bars courts from reviewing Administrative Procedure Act challenges to decisions designating or terminating Temporary Protected Status, while allowing constitutional Equal Protection claims to proceed.
“The Supreme Court ruled that district courts lack jurisdiction to review terminations of temporary protected status. I’m confused why some district courts have not yet removed any remaining road blocks,” Eric Wessan, Iowa’s solicitor general, told Fox News Digital.
Clinton-Appointed Judge Has Long History on Immigration Cases
Saris, who was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by President Bill Clinton in 1993, has presided over a number of high-profile immigration disputes involving both the Trump and Biden administrations. Before the Supreme Court weighed in on the underlying legal question, Saris repeatedly ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, first temporarily blocking the TPS termination in December 2025 before issuing a broader postponement in February.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Justice Department asked the 1st Circuit to reverse Saris’ February order. The plaintiffs did not oppose the request, instead asking the appeals court to send the case back to the district court so they could pursue only the narrower constitutional claims the Supreme Court left intact — a request Saris granted Thursday. The temporary order keeps South Sudan’s TPS protections in place for now, but the 1st Circuit and potentially the Supreme Court could soon weigh in on whether the district court has the power to do so at all. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and to plaintiffs African Communities Together for comment.
