OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
A federal judge has made a serious allegation about the Justice Department amid an ongoing case.
The judge accuses the department of trying to force his hand in a major immigration case.
District Judge Drew Tipton, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, issued an injunction last week.
The Justice Department said that it would seek emergency relief from an appeals court by 2 p.m. Central Time if Tipton had not acted on a request to stay last week’s injunction.
Speaking to Adam Kirschner, a DOJ attorney, Tipton asked, “Whose idea was it to impose a 2 p.m. deadline on the court?”
“This is the view of the United States,” Kirschner said. “I can’t speak to internal deliberations. It shows the urgency that we have and the great irreparable harm posed by the injunction.”
“Whose idea was it?” he said. “Were you involved in it?”
“It’s not a good look … to have a hearing set for 3:15 to address these issues and then to get a deadline,” he said.
Tipton believes someone at Biden’s Justice Department is attempting to push around the federal judge.
Kirschner refused to name anyone but admitted that he was involved in the discussions. Kirschner claimed it was “privileged information.”
Tipton said the Biden administration could not use any of the new immigration rules it rolled out when President Joe Biden took office. Tipton gave federal officials one week to make an appeal of his ruling to a higher court before forcing the Biden administration to play by Trump’s rules.
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Kirschner explained that the Justice Department wanted time to file an appeal of Tipton’s ruling and wanted to file it early enough to get relief from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, if necessary.
“This was not an attack at you or an attack at the court,” Kirschner said. “We thought if we were to wait until after the hearing it would be another day lost.”
Tipton eventually let the point ride, griping, “That did not make my week.”
During the hearing, Kirschner said Tipton’s ruling “will cause public safety harm. It will cause harm to the country. The injunction completely upends the entire system the agency is operating under.”
Tipton said he found the argument alarmist.
