The American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers brought a suit against the Trump administration ‘on behalf’ of Columbia University (who was NOT part of the suit) because the administration withheld and terminated grants and contracts worth over $5 billion worth of taxpayers funds.
In what has become the modus operandi for the judicial branch this year, a district court judge had ‘ordered’ the funds to be released. Subsequently:
New York federal district court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil not only denied the preliminary injunction sought by the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, she threw out their lawsuit against the Trump administration entirely.
And she did it in fine form:
“With no apparent sense of irony, lawyers for an organization called ‘Protect Democracy’ insist that a district court judge should order the Executive Branch immediately to restore the flow of taxpayer dollars to an elite university, which funding Defendants represent is inconsistent with the priorities of the duly elected President of the United States.”
There’s a lot more, but she finished it up with a nice backslap to activist district court judges:
Plaintiffs blithely assert that the balance of equities and the public interest ‘strongly favor preliminary relief’ and that ‘no public interest is served by allowing continued violations [of the law].’ However, it is not the role of a district court judge to direct the policies of the Executive Branch first and ask questions later. Plaintiffs have not established their standing to litigate this case, let alone any violation of any law.
The way I’m reading it, there’s two issues at play that informed this decision 1) Columbia was allowing these two unions to carry its water and was hoping to stay out of it and the unions had no standing to carry Columbia’s water and 2) district court judges are way the hell out of their lane.
But it’s sad that it’s surprising when a judgement comes down that’s actually in line with reality and the Constitution.
Midwest Chick's Place 
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