The Breathtaking Arrogance of the Judicial Insurrection
A district court judge just blocked the Trump administration from enacting a bill duly passed by Congress.
The ink had barely dried on President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill signature before a district court judge issued an injunction to block the legislation.
Judge Indira Talwani on Monday ordered Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. not to apply Section 71113 of the Big Beautiful Bill against Planned Parenthood and its members or against the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts or Planned Parenthood Association of Utah.
Section 71113 imposes a one-year ban on Medicaid payments to health care nonprofits that also perform abortions and received more than $800,000 in federal funding in 2023.
Talwani did not give a rationale for her order, but Planned Parenthood had sued to block the provision, saying it unconstitutionally targets Planned Parenthood, violating its equal protection rights and amounting to a retaliation for Planned Parenthood’s protected speech. Planned Parenthood notes that federal law already bans taxpayer funding for abortion. Critics argue that money is fungible, so any funding the abortion giant receives enables its broader activities, including abortion.
Talwani’s injunction only applies to plaintiffs in the case, and does not bar the federal government from applying Section 71113 against others. Therefore, it does not violate the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. CASA (2025), which banned nationwide injunctions. The order also only applies for two weeks.
The injunction does, however, underscore the judicial insurrection.
Many of the same groups that staffed and advised the Biden administration (which I expose in “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government”) have filed lawsuits to block Trump’s policies, choosing jurisdictions with more friendly judges in order to secure injunctions.
During oral arguments at the Supreme Court, Solicitor General D. John Sauer noted that courts had issued 40 universal injunctions against the federal government, including 35 from the same five judicial districts.
In some cases, district court judges have arguably defied even the Supreme Court.
Massachusetts-based District Judge Brian Murphy openly defied the court. He had issued a temporary injunction on April 18, blocking the Trump administration from deporting illegal aliens to South Sudan. He issued a follow-up order on May 21, clarifying and enforcing the injunction.
The Supreme Court struck down his April 18 order on June 23, but he issued another order that same day, stating that the May 21 order remained in effect.
The Department of Homeland Security condemned Murphy’s “unprecedented defiance” of the Supreme Court, but his action makes a perverse kind of sense in the context of a judicial insurrection where judges take upon themselves the authority of the president of the United States.
Judge Talwani’s order echoes Murphy’s move. Her demand that the government continue funding Planned Parenthood comes less than a month after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (2025), which allowed states to defund Planned Parenthood in Medicaid.
Judge Talwani has effectively ruled that, regardless of Congress’ clear will in exercising its power of the purse, the government must fund Planned Parenthood.