Bondi Removes Legal Shield For Administrative Judges So Trump Can Dismiss Them

The Justice Department issued a letter last week stating that it has determined many removal restrictions for administrative law judges to be unconstitutional.

The decision follows growing frustration within the Trump administration over judicial roadblocks to its executive actions.

In the letter, acting U.S. Solicitor General Sarah Harris informed President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley (R-IA) that the Justice Department “has concluded that the multiple layers of removal restrictions for administrative law judges” violate the U.S. Constitution, the Western Journal reported.

The letter means the administration “will no longer defend” the removal restrictions in court or in litigation.

For reference, Harris cited a 2010 decision from the Supreme Court, which said that granting “multilayer protection from removal” to executive officers “is contrary to Article II’s vesting of the executive power in the President.”

The Department of Justice also argues that the federal law limiting the dismissal of administrative law judges to cases of “good cause” violates Article II of the Constitution. That federal statute limits “the President’s ability to remove principal executive officers, who are in turn restricted in their ability to remove inferior executive officers.”