HAMMER: When Will The Trump Administration Finally Defy A Lawless Federal Court?

On Wednesday, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York imposed a lawless “nationwide injunction” on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) so-called “Conscience Rule.” That administrative rule, promulgated under the guidance of HHS’s Roger Severino, attempted to ensure, in Judge Engelmayer’s words, that both HHS programs and those who receive HHS funds properly “address objections to abortion, sterilization, and assisted suicide, in addition to counseling and referrals related to these services.”

Judge Engelmayer’s gargantuan 147-page opinion deems the Conscience Rule to be an unconstitutional agency overreach, but is primarily concerned with HHS’s alleged statutory violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Careful readers will recall how the APA has frequently been weaponized against President Donald Trump by a revanchist judicial “resistance.”