During an interview aired on Thursday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” co-host Michel Martin responded to DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin saying that the administration knew it would deal with “activist judges” by stating that “I don’t know who you’re calling activist judges” and then cutting off McLaughlin when McLaughlin attempted to say exactly who she thinks those activist judges are.
Martin asked, [relevant exchange begins around 2:15] “[T]here have been a number of judges complaining about the administration’s tactics, demanding more information, saying that the administration is being evasive in court proceedings. Is there an attempt to force a confrontation with the courts to define this authority and to define it in a more expansive fashion than has been interpreted in the past?”
McLaughlin responded, “We knew we were facing an uphill battle with these courts. We knew that there would be activist judges as we entered this administration, and that is why the president is giving the American people and the government, who is executing on the mandate of the American people, every tool at our disposal to get out the people who have illegally entered this country.”
Martin then stated, “I don’t know who you’re calling activist judges, because a number of the judges who have objected to the administration’s tactics in court have been appointed by Republicans, and, in some cases, by President Trump himself in his first term.”
McLaughlin then cut in to say, “Sure. I can point [out] exactly who I’m talking about, if you’d like.”
Martin then cut in to state, “Well, let’s not.”
After McLaughlin continued her statement by saying, “I can give you the example of the Wisconsin judge.”
Martin then said, “Forgive me” to which McLaughlin agreed before Martin continued, “I’m not trying to litigate each case here. That’s not what we’re here to do. What I’m asking you, philosophically, does the administration have a strategy of trying to force confrontations with these judges in order to expand the limits of its executive authority?”
McLaughlin responded, “Again, we are executing on the will of the American people, and we will use the tools at our disposal, including the Alien Enemies Act, which the Supreme Court ruled, unanimously, that we could use, and we will continue to use.”
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