A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the Trump administration’s unprecedented lawsuit against every member of Maryland’s federal bench, ending the Justice Department’s attempt to overturn a district-wide order that slows deportations of migrant detainees. U.S. District Judge Thomas T. Cullen issued the ruling in Baltimore on Aug. 26, 2025. The administration had challenged a standing order signed in May by Chief Judge George L. Russell III that automatically bars immigration authorities from removing or altering the legal status of detainees for two business days after they file a habeas corpus petition. Government lawyers argued the pause exceeded judicial authority and hampered enforcement of immigration laws. In a 37-page opinion, Cullen—himself a 2020 Trump appointee assigned to the case because all 15 Maryland judges were defendants—found the executive branch lacked standing to sue, ruled the judges absolutely immune from such claims, and said the dispute belonged in conventional appeals or before the judiciary’s governing council. Allowing the case to go forward, he wrote, would invite a “constitutional free-for-all” and undermine long-standing separation-of-powers precedent. The decision ends a rare inter-branch clash but leaves open the possibility of the administration contesting the Maryland order through individual cases or appellate review. The Justice Department has not yet said whether it will pursue further action.