A MAGA Judge's Shocking Power Grab Crosses Over Into an Impeachable Offense

A federal judge ordered a Rhode Island hospital to provide sensitive information about minors who received gender-affirming care, including private medical records and Social Security numbers. The judge then issued an injunction threatening contempt to prevent the hospital from seeking relief in federal courts that oversee Rhode Island. The order also barred the hospital from “aiding and abetting” any other party that might seek help from those courts, including the children whose rights could be harmed by disclosure of their records. The judge’s actions are characterized as an extreme abuse of power that exceeds legal authority and risks a constitutional crisis over distant courts encroaching on jurisdiction at the president’s direction.

"At the Trump administration's bidding, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor—who sits in Texas—commanded Rhode Island Hospital to give him sensitive information about minors who received gender-affirming care, including their private medical records and Social Security numbers. He then issued an injunction claiming to prohibit the hospital from seeking relief in the federal courts that oversee Rhode Island under threat of contempt. And he barred the hospital from “aiding and abetting” any other party that might ask for help from these courts, including the children whose rights will be trampled by disclosure of their records."

"O'Connor's order is an extreme abuse of power that verges on impeachable misconduct. He has absolutely no authority to prevent any party from seeking relief in another court, let alone the home courts with natural jurisdiction over this dispute. Nor may he gag any litigant from “aiding and abetting” others who wish to make their case in those courts; these prohibitions read more like the diktat of an autocrat than the lawful directive of a jurist."

"O'Connor's massive overreach seems designed to tee up a constitutional crisis over the ability of MAGA judges to facilitate the administration's persecution of blue-state residents many miles away. It also tests the resolve of judges in those blue states to hold the line against distant conservative courts attempting to encroach upon their constitutional authority at the president's behest."

Read at Slate Magazine