{"id":107975,"date":"2025-02-07T14:33:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T22:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/07\/reagan-judge-gets-poetic-in-slapping-down-donald-trumps-effort-to-rewrite-the-constitution\/"},"modified":"2025-02-07T14:33:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T22:33:58","slug":"reagan-judge-gets-poetic-in-slapping-down-donald-trumps-effort-to-rewrite-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/07\/reagan-judge-gets-poetic-in-slapping-down-donald-trumps-effort-to-rewrite-the-constitution\/","title":{"rendered":"Reagan Judge Gets Poetic In Slapping Down Donald Trump\u2019s Effort To Rewrite The Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seattle-based district court Judge John Coughenour \u2014 appointed to the federal bench by noted lefty President Ronald Reagan \u2014 is already on record that he is not at all a fan<\/a> of Donald Trump\u2019s unilateral effort to rewrite the Fourteenth Amendment and end birthright citizenship. He\u2019s overseeing a case to stop Trump\u2019s executive order brought by four states and individual pregnant immigrant plaintiffs. The initial restraining order Coughenour issued on the enforcement of the executive order was set to expire, but yesterday the judge granted the states\u2019 effort to block the EO with a preliminary injunction.<\/a><\/p>\n

Coughenour isn\u2019t the first<\/a> to enjoin the order ahead of its February 18th effective date, but he made a stirring statement in defense of the rule of law and against the \u201cclearly unconstitutional\u201d effort of Trump to amend the constitution \u201cunder the guise of an executive order.\u201d As reported by<\/a> Law360:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt has become ever more apparent that to our president the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals,\u201d Judge Coughenour said at a hearing Thursday. \u201cThe rule of law is, according to him, is something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain.<\/p>\n

\u201cNevertheless, in this courtroom and under my watch, the rule of law is a bright beacon which I intend to follow,\u201d the judge said. \u201c\u2026 I refuse to let that beacon go dark today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Judge Coughenour continued, \u201cWe are all citizens subject to the rule of law.\u201d Adding, \u201cNo amount of policy debate can change that. And the fact that the government has cloaked what is effectively a constitutional amendment under the guise of an executive order is equally unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the government wants to change the exceptional American grant of birthright citizenship, it needs to amend the Constitution itself. That\u2019s how the Constitution works, and that\u2019s how the rule of law works,\u201d the judge said. \u201cBecause the president\u2019s order attempts to circumscribe this process, it is clearly unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powerful stuff \u2014 particularly coming from a Republican-appointed judge.<\/p>\n

\n

\"KathrynKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Reagan Judge Gets Poetic In Slapping Down Donald Trump\u2019s Effort To Rewrite The Constitution<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seattle-based district court Judge John Coughenour \u2014 appointed to the federal bench by noted lefty President Ronald Reagan \u2014 is already on record that he is not at all a fan<\/a> of Donald Trump\u2019s unilateral effort to rewrite the Fourteenth Amendment and end birthright citizenship. He\u2019s overseeing a case to stop Trump\u2019s executive order brought by four states and individual pregnant immigrant plaintiffs. The initial restraining order Coughenour issued on the enforcement of the executive order was set to expire, but yesterday the judge granted the states\u2019 effort to block the EO with a preliminary injunction.<\/a><\/p>\n

Coughenour isn\u2019t the first<\/a> to enjoin the order ahead of its February 18th effective date, but he made a stirring statement in defense of the rule of law and against the \u201cclearly unconstitutional\u201d effort of Trump to amend the constitution \u201cunder the guise of an executive order.\u201d As reported by<\/a> Law360:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIt has become ever more apparent that to our president the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals,\u201d Judge Coughenour said at a hearing Thursday. \u201cThe rule of law is, according to him, is something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain.<\/p>\n

\u201cNevertheless, in this courtroom and under my watch, the rule of law is a bright beacon which I intend to follow,\u201d the judge said. \u201c\u2026 I refuse to let that beacon go dark today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Judge Coughenour continued, \u201cWe are all citizens subject to the rule of law.\u201d Adding, \u201cNo amount of policy debate can change that. And the fact that the government has cloaked what is effectively a constitutional amendment under the guise of an executive order is equally unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the government wants to change the exceptional American grant of birthright citizenship, it needs to amend the Constitution itself. That\u2019s how the Constitution works, and that\u2019s how the rule of law works,\u201d the judge said. \u201cBecause the president\u2019s order attempts to circumscribe this process, it is clearly unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Powerful stuff \u2014 particularly coming from a Republican-appointed judge.<\/p>\n

\n

\"KathrynKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seattle-based district court Judge John Coughenour \u2014 appointed to the federal bench by noted lefty President Ronald Reagan \u2014 is already on record that he is not at all a fan of Donald Trump\u2019s unilateral effort to rewrite the Fourteenth Amendment and end birthright citizenship. He\u2019s overseeing a case to stop Trump\u2019s executive order brought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-300x275-4KvCNR.jpeg?fit=300%2C275&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}