Full List of Judges Who Have Thwarted the Trump Administration So Far

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Federal judges across the country have put several of President Donald Trump's actions on hold since he returned to the White House last month.

Dozens of lawsuits have been filed, including those against Trump's efforts to freeze federal funding, end birthright citizenship for the children of people in the U.S. and shrink the government.

Opponents are hoping the courts will serve as a check on the president's plans. But while Trump has faced setbacks in some of the legal challenges so far, some cases could make their way to the Supreme Court, where conservative justices—three of them appointed by Trump—have shown a willingness to overturn precedent.

Here, Newsweek rounds up the federal judges who have blocked or restricted the Trump administration's actions.

President Donald Trump speaks to the press
President Donald Trump speaks to journalists on February 3 as he signs an executive order to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund. Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Loren AliKhan

AliKhan was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by President Joe Biden in December 2023.

She served as solicitor general for the District of Columbia from 2018 until her appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2022.

AliKhan blocked the Trump administration's sweeping plan to pause federal funding while it reviewed whether programs aligned with his agenda, minutes before it was scheduled to take effect on January 28, after a group of nonprofit and public health organizations filed a lawsuit. She extended the order last week, ruling that the federal government must tell agencies not to implement the freeze.

Deborah Boardman

Boardman, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, was appointed by Biden in 2021. She spent more than a decade with the Federal Public Defender's Office for the District of Maryland before being appointed a U.S. magistrate judge in 2019.

She was the second federal judge to order a pause on Trump's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for children of those in the country illegally, in a lawsuit brought by immigrant rights groups and several expectant mothers. She said citizenship is a "national concern that demands a uniform policy."

John Coughenour

Coughenour, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, was nominated to the federal bench in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan. He has a reputation for being a tough judge and has presided over high-profile cases, including the trial of Ahmed Ressam, the "millennium bomber" who was convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve in 1999.

Coughenour was the first judge to block Trump's executive order denying birthright citizenship to the children of people living in the U.S. illegally, calling it "blatantly unconstitutional" in a lawsuit brought by four states.

Paul Engelmayer

Engelmayer, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2011. He worked as an assistant U.S. attorney, an assistant to the solicitor general and in private practice before his nomination to the federal bench.

This past Saturday, he issued a preliminary junction blocking Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department records after 19 Democratic attorneys general sued Trump.

Amy Berman Jackson

Jackson, a district judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was nominated by Obama in 2011. Before joining the court, she worked as a federal prosecutor and in private practice.

She became known for her criticism of the first Trump administration's actions and presided over several prosecutions stemming from the Russia investigation, including the prosecutions of Roger Stone and Paul Manafort.

On Monday, Jackson ordered Hampton Dellinger to be reinstated as head of the Office of Special Counsel, which is responsible for guarding the federal workforce against illegal personnel actions, while a court battle continues over his removal by Trump.

Angel Kelley

Kelley, a judge on the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, was nominated by Biden in 2021. She was previously an associate justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court.

Kelley blocked the Trump administration's efforts to make billions of dollars in cuts to funding for health research grants after Democratic attorneys general from 22 states sued.

Royce Lamberth

Lamberth, a senior judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was nominated by Reagan in 1987. He served in the Army from 1967 to 1974 and worked in the District of Columbia's U.S. attorney's office before his nomination to the federal bench.

Last week, Lamberth temporarily blocked prison officials from transferring transgender women to men's facilities and terminating their access to hormone therapy. He is presiding over a lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., on behalf of three transgender women who were housed in women's facilities before Trump signed an executive order that requires the federal Bureau of Prisons to ensure that "males are not detained in women's prisons or housed in women's detention centers."

Joseph Laplante

Laplante, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2007. He previously worked in the U.S. Attorney's Offices in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

On Monday, Laplante became the third federal judge to block Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship for children of those in the U.S. illegally, saying he wasn't persuaded by the administration's defense. He said he would issue at a later date a longer preliminary injunction explaining his reasoning, according to the Associated Press.

John McConnell

McConnell, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, was nominated by Obama in 2011. He worked in private practice in Rhode Island from 1984 until his appointed to the federal bench.

He was the second judge to block the Trump administration's efforts to freeze federal funding in a lawsuit brought by nearly two dozen Democratic states. He ruled on Monday that the Trump administration hadn't fully followed his order from late January and directed the White House to release all remaining funds.

Carl Nichols

Nicholas, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, was nominated by Trump in 2019. He worked for the Department of Justice between 2005 and 2009 and was in private practice before his nomination to the bench.

This past Friday, Nichols ordered a temporary halt to plans to put almost 3,000 U.S. Agency for International Development employees on paid leave and agreed to stop the 30-day deadline for USAID staffers to return home at government expense.

But he said in a hearing that his order was not a decision on a request from two federal employee associations to roll back the administration's dismantling of the agency, the AP reported.

George O'Toole Jr.

O'Toole Jr. was appointed a U.S. district judge for the District of Massachusetts by President Bill Clinton in 1995. O'Toole is overseeing the legal battle over Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence. In August, Tsarnaev's lawyers said O'Toole should be recused from the case, citing comments he made about it on podcasts and at public events during the appeals process.

O'Toole has temporarily blocked Trump's plan to encourage federal workers to resign by offering them paid leave. On Monday, he said the stay would remain in place until he issues a ruling after multiple workers' unions sued over the plan.

He also issued a temporary restraining order blocking federal officials from transferring a transgender woman to a men's facility after the woman filed a lawsuit challenging Trump's order barring transgender women from women's prisons and detention centers.

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About the writer

Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda joined Newsweek in 2019 and had previously worked at the MailOnline in London, New York and Sydney. She is a graduate of University College London. Languages: English. You can get in touch with Khaleda by emailing k.rahman@newsweek.com


Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more