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Published On: Sat, May 31st, 2025

Stephen Miller: Federalist Society and Leonard Leo Created A Broken System For Judicial Vetting

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller battles CNN’s Pamela Brown about why some Trump-appointed judges have challenged some of the president’s actions. “You heard President Trump himself say that the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo have created a broken system for judicial vetting,” Miller said. ” We’re not going to be using the Federalist Society to make judicial nominations at all going forward. But let me tell you about these rogue judges.” “This administration has religiously complied with even the most unlawful court orders. But it completely upends the constitutional system to have a single judge in Boston assert the same powers as the President of the United States. That is such an offense to democracy,” he said.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN: I want to go to what is a big win today for the administration from the Supreme Court. I mean, it handed you all a win on ending deportation protections for a certain group of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. So you have these wins. I think it was the second one on this particular issue just in the last few weeks. Yet even just yesterday, we saw whenever a judge rules against this administration, you say they’re going rogue. Do you think a judge should just rubber stamp what yor White House does? If not, what checks and balances should be in place? STEPHEN MILLER: It is not the job of a district court judge to perform an individual green-light or red-light on every sinlge policy the president takes as the head of the executive branch. Just think about the premise baked into your question. You’re saying that when the American people elect a President of the United States of America- PAMELA BROWN, CNN: I’m not saying- STEPHEN MILLER: Well, it’s the implication. He-let me finish. Let me finish. I will answer the question happily. But look, when you have these kinds of lazy assumptions built into questions, it makes it hard to have constructive dialogue. You said, Is it my expectation…? It’s not just you, it’s the whole media… When you say, Do we think district court judges should rubber-stamp each action, there is a premise that is built into that that is absurd. The president is the sole head of the executive branch. He’s the only officer in the entire government that is elected by the entire American people. Democracy cannot function-in fact, democracy does not exist at all-if each action the president takes: foreign policy, diplomatic, military, national security, has to be individually approved by 700 district court judges. That’s democracy? So if there’s 15 communist, crazy judges on the court, that each of them as a team working together can block and freeze each and every executive action? Joe Biden was allowed by that same court system 20 million illegal foreigners into this country. PAMELA BROWN, CNN: Some of them are Trump judges, though. Why did Trump put these crazy communist judges, as you call them, on the bench? STEPHEN MILLER: You heard President Trump himself say that the Federalist Society and Leonard Leo have created a broken system for judicial vetting. And God knows this time around we are not going to be using the Federalist society. PAMELA BROWN, CNN: Does that mean he doesn’t support picking Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court? STEPHEN MILLER: What it means is simply this and nothing more: We’re not going to be using the Federalist Society to make judicial nominations at all going forward. But let me tell you about these rogue judges. This is the most litigated issue over the last ten years-whether or not to deport the foreigners who invaded our country illegally. That is the most litigated issue. You want a democracy in this country? When Americans vote, when they cry out and they beg for a president to come and save them from this invasion, and some district court judge in San Francisco or Manhattan or Los Angeles tries to shut it down and shield these foreigners from deportation-while the courts did nothing to stop Joe Biden and his administration and his officers and Mayorkas from overseeing this invasion? And of course we celebrate the fact the Supreme Court stepped in-and actually celebrate with the Trump administration, the previous one, with Biden. But nobody stopped Joe Biden from flooding this country with foreign invaders. PAMELA BROWN, CNN: So let me follow up with that- STEPHEN MILLER: Because we celebrate the fact that 500,000 of those can now be deported because the Supreme Court justly stepped in and stopped these crazy lower court injunctions. Congress has reserved to the president by law, the authority to conduct immigration enforcement. PAMELA BROWN, CNN: The argument you’re making-jurisdiction-is certainly shared by many Americans. The Supreme Court right now is looking at whether judges can issue a nationwide injunction. That issue in particular is certainly valid to be discussed. But there are several lower court judges that have raised the idea that this White House isn’t following its court order. Is this administration committed to following the court rulings and the legal process? STEPHEN MILLER: We are committed to following and obeying the law of the United States, and the president has complied with all court orders. Am I going to sit here today and say, for example, that if a district court judge ordered us to take 1,000 troops from Iraq and move them to Afghanistan, that we would just do that? If a district court judge ordered us, for example, to reveal a secret location of a CIA base overseas to the entire world, and then all the CIA officers in that base would be murdered and killed-am I going to sit here today and engage in radical hypotheticals? This administration has religiously complied with even the most unlawful court orders. But it completely upends the constitutional system to have a single judge in Boston assert the same powers as the President of the United States. That is such an offense to democracy. And on this network, we heard the word ‘democracy, democracy, democracy’ for God knows how many years during the Biden administration-when they were trying to throw President Trump in jail, claiming somehow that was what democracy required-when in fact the Democrat Party has been waging war against democracy. They should be renamed the Communist Party. And district court judges that are trying to keep millions of illegal aliens here to steal our jobs, to steal our livelihood, to steal our benefits, there’s nothing more on track than talking about the fact that the constitutional crisis are district court judges keeping illegal aliens on our soil who have no right to be here.

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