Episode 22 | Judges vs. The People: The Latest Battles on Transgender Activism & Illegal Immigration

In this episode, our hosts — Kathryn Johnson and law professors Ilan Wurman and Joshua Kleinfeld — examine the three latest examples of judicial power being used to block elected officials.

They cover Florida’s effort to hold the American Academy of Pediatrics and WPATH to account for lying about the risks and benefits of transgender surgery on kids — only for an Illinois federal judge to step in and halt the state proceedings on First Amendment grounds. They cover the D.C. Circuit’s decision to overrule Pete Hegseth and compel the American military to permit transgender service members — holding that his policy was motivated by bare “animus” with no rational basis. And they cover a Tennessee federal judge’s decision to dismiss human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on the novel theory of “vindictive prosecution” — once again protecting an illegal immigrant with alleged gang ties from deportation.

The episode closes with a deeper discussion of judicial power itself: what happens when major policy questions keep getting resolved by courts rather than through democratic politics? Have conservatives been too sanguine about the judiciary’s role?

Don’t miss it. And be sure to check out Professor Wurman’s new book, The Constitution of 1789: A New Introduction, now available from Cambridge University Press.