JUST IN: House GOP Launches Effort To Ban Rogue Judges From Nationwide Injunctions

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is attempting to thread the needle between President Donald Trump’s calls to impeach federal judges blocking his agenda and reining in their power without taking the politically perilous votes to remove them from office.

Facing mounting pressure from the White House, Johnson announced his support for legislation that sets a limit on the scope of a district judge’s ruling in the event that an injunction is put in place. President Trump and his allies have for weeks complained about the ability of local judges to implement nationwide bans on deportations or the shuttering of government agencies, for example.

The legislation, introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), could provide Johnson with a path forward without stoking the mainstream media’s narrative that a “constitutional crisis” is looming. As the Trump administration has skirted judicial rulings by citing technicalities or procedural miscommunications, reporters have increasingly grown comfortable with suggesting that the president will eventually flout a federal court’s order, which he has denied.

Issa’s bill, the “No Rogue Rulings Act,” seeks to bar federal judges from enacting nationwide injunctions. Speaker Johnson, a former constitutional attorney, supported the legislation on Tuesday.

“We have a major malfunction in our federal judiciary, and practically every week another judge casts aside the tradition of restraint from the bench and opts to be the Trump resistance in robes,” Issa said in a statement to NBC News.

The senior Judiciary Committee member added, “Our bill is the constitutional solution to a national problem, and that’s why it’s on a glide path to the House floor and to the Senate next.”

Hardline Republicans in the House GOP, like Reps. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) and Andy Ogles (R-TN) have filed separate bills to impeach specific judges, most notably U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, after he halted the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan illegal immigrants.

Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) added his voice to the growing chorus of support for Issa’s bill, calling it a “good piece of legislation.” House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), who controls the schedule of floor activity, said on Monday the bill will be brought up for a vote next week.

In an earlier interview, Johnson sounded a note of caution about impeaching judges in the way that President Trump is calling for, suggesting that the level of support among Republican lawmakers wouldn’t be enough to push an unabridged impeachment of Boasberg over the top in the face of total Democratic opposition.

“I do think the line is being crossed right now,” said Johnson, who, before taking office, represented religious liberty cases in court. Recalling his experience, he said, “I never walked out of those courtrooms thinking that I could impeach those judges. I just got as quickly as I could to the appellate court to get them overturned.”

“But something’s happening right now,” he went on, pointing to the rising number of federal decisions against the Trump administration. “Something’s amiss. I think we’ve got to address it.”