Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sparred with a legal professor during a Tuesday congressional hearing over nationwide injunctions issued by district court judges against President Trump's administration. Hawley, during the Senate Judiciary joint subcommittee hearing,presented a graphshowing that the number of injunctions issued against Trump is far higher than other recent U.S. presidents. "You don't think this is a little bit anomalous?" Hawley asked University of Pennsylvania Law School professor Kate Shaw. "A very plausible explanation, senator, you have to consider is that he [Trump] is engaged in much more lawless activity than other presidents, right," Shaw said. "You must concede that as a possibility." Hawley argued that nationwide injunctions, which judges have issued in recent months to temporarily halt or slow down the actions of the executive branch, had not been used before the 1960s and that "suddenly Democrat judges decide we love the nationwide injunction, and then when Biden comes into office, no, no." Shaw, a Supreme Court contributor for ABC News, noted that Republican-appointed justices have also imposed injunctions against the administration and added that the 1960s was "where some scholars begin — sort of locate the beginning of this." The professor, who worked in the Obama White House Counsel's Office, said that Mila Sohoni, "who's another scholar of universal injunction, suggests 1913 is actually the first and others in the '20s." "The federal government was doing a lot less until 100 years ago," Shaw said. "There's many things that have changed in the last 100 or the last 50 years." "So as long as it is a Democrat president in office, then we should have no nationwide injunctions," Hawley said during the exchange. "If it's a Republican president, then this is absolutely fine, warranted and called for." During Trump's second White House term, judges have ruled against the president's efforts regarding mass deportations, federal funding cuts, efforts to terminate federal workers and tariffs. Other GOP senators voiced their displeasure with the judges' rulings during the Tuesday hearing. Republicans in Congressintroduced measuresearlier this year that would curb nationwide injunctions, saying it would prevent jurists from overreaching, while Democrats have said that judges are just doing their jobs. The Missouri senator also asked, "How can our system of law survive on those principles, professor?" "I think a system in which there are no constraints on the president is a very dangerous system," Shaw responded. Hawley fired back at Shaw, saying that it was not the argument she used when former President Biden occupied the Oval Office. "You said it was a travesty for the principles of democracy, notions of judicial impartiality and the rule of law," Hawley said. "You also said when Joe Biden was president, you said the idea that anyone would foreign shop to get a judge who would issue a nationwide objection was just judges looking like politicians in robes, again, it threatened the underlying legal system. It was just trying to get the result they wanted. It was a travesty for the rule of law," the GOP lawmaker added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
