Justice Neil Gorsuch has taken a firm stance against lower courts that appear to be disregarding Supreme Court rulings, a trend he highlighted in a recent opinion.
Gorsuch criticized these courts for repeatedly defying the Supreme Court's decisions, particularly in cases involving the Trump administration's policies.
According to Conservative Daily News, the Supreme Court recently allowed the Trump administration to proceed with cutting millions in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants.
This decision marked the third instance in a short span where the Supreme Court had to overturn a lower court's ruling on a matter it had previously settled. In his opinion, which Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined, Gorsuch emphasized, "Lower court judges may sometimes disagree with this Courts decisions, but they are never free to defy them."
Earlier in the year, the Supreme Court had permitted the Trump administration to terminate grants related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training for teachers. Despite this, a lower court in June allowed a lawsuit concerning similar NIH grants to proceed, relying on dissenting opinions rather than the majority ruling.
This led to a judicial block on the administration's efforts to terminate DEI and gender ideology-related NIH grants. Gorsuch expressed his disapproval, stating, "If nothing else, the promise of our legal system that like cases are treated alike means that a lower court ought not invoke the persuasive authority of a dissent or a repudiated court of appeals decision to reach a different conclusion on an equivalent record."
Gorsuch pointed out that this was not an isolated incident, citing two other recent examples of lower court defiance. In one case, the Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision, blocked a district court judge's attempt to bypass an order allowing the Trump administration to resume third-country deportations.
Even Justice Elena Kagan, who had initially dissented, joined the conservative justices in enforcing the order, noting, "I do not see how a district court can compel compliance with an order that this Court has stayed."
Another instance involved a lower court's decision to block President Donald Trump's attempt to dismiss three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The Supreme Court had previously granted a similar request from the President to remove members of administrative agencies.
In its directive, the Supreme Court reiterated that while its emergency docket decisions are not definitive regarding the merits, they should guide how courts exercise their equitable discretion in similar cases.
Gorsuch concluded by underscoring a fundamental principle of the judicial system: judges, regardless of their personal views, must adhere to "the hierarchy of the federal court system created by the Constitution and Congress."
He lamented that these interventions were necessary, emphasizing the duty of judges to respect the established judicial hierarchy.
Login