Overview

• U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen tossed the suit as a non-justiciable separation-of-powers dispute, finding the DOJ lacked standing and the judges are immune.
• The challenged standing order, signed by Chief Judge George L. Russell III, automatically pauses removals until 4 p.m. on the second business day after a habeas petition is filed.
• Cullen declined to reach the order’s legality, writing that the executive must use ordinary channels such as appeals or a rules petition to the judicial council.
• In a pointed rebuke, Cullen criticized recent executive branch attacks on judges as an “unprecedented and unfortunate” effort to smear the judiciary.
• The administration has filed a notice of appeal, leaving Maryland’s two-business-day deportation pause in place while litigation continues.