Jim Jordan urges appropriators to use the power of the purse to restrain federal judges

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan wants to use Congress’ next spending bills to rein in federal judges.

Mr. Jordan sent a letter to the Republican leaders of the House Appropriations Committee requesting language added to spending bills to curb federal judges issuing nationwide injunctions.

He urged the measures to stop federal judges who have worked to block President Trump’s executive orders.

Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican, also requested measures that would limit appropriated funds for the issuance and enforcement of nationwide injunctions. That would include the use of court resources to compel compliance, fines or contempt proceedings related to nationwide injunctions.

The next spending bills will be for fiscal year 2026, which begins Oct. 1.

Since Mr. Trump returned to the White House, Mr. Jordan explained in the letter, he has put forth an aggressive agenda through sweeping executive orders that have been dogged by “district court judges issuing nationwide injunctions that disrupt the implementation of federal policies.”

The congressman said the all-encompassing rulings, often handed down by a single judge, “threaten the constitutional balance of power” and override the “popular will of the American people as embodied in Congress and the president.”

Several Trump policies are currently stalled by injunctions, including a judge in California blocking the administration’s ability to fire probationary employees — government workers hired within the last year or two, depending on the agency.

Mr. Jordan said his committee also is drafting developed legislation to address the “misuse of judicial authority and to restore balance between the branches of the federal government.”

He called on the Appropriations Committee to do the same using Congress’s power of the purse.

“As you develop appropriations for the federal judiciary, we respectfully urge you to consider appropriate language that would enhance judicial restraint and reaffirm democratic principles,” Mr. Jordan wrote.

He called on the Appropriations panel to consider a raft of legislative language in upcoming funding bills. This includes:

• Prohibit the use of taxpayer dollars and federal resources to issue or enforce overbroad injunctions beyond the specific parties in front of an issuing court in a particular case.

• Limit appropriated funds related to the issuance and enforcement of nationwide injunctions, including using court resources to compel compliance, impose fines, or conduct contempt proceedings related to such injunctions.

• Fund judicial security measures to protect justices, judges, court employees, and the American public, as well as safeguard an independent judiciary that respects constitutional limits on judicial authority.

“These steps would reinforce the proper limits of judicial power and ensure that taxpayer resources support a judiciary that respects its constitutional role,” Mr. Jordan wrote. “These departures from judicial restraint come after years of Democrat attacks on federal courts intended to intimidate judges into submitting to their policy goals, including threats made against Supreme Court justices by the Senate’s Democratic leader.”