For over a year, President Donald Trump’s team has tangled with activist judges who act as if they run the executive branch. These activists in black robes think they can dictate policy on border security, national defense, and pretty much everything the executive branch does. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has become the poster child for this judicial overreach. Last week, the Trump administration finally decided it had enough of his illegitimate orders, and told him, in so many words, to pound sand.

“The Trump administration will not comply with a court order requiring due process for hundreds of Venezuelan migrants deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador last year, DOJ lawyers said,” reports Fox News Digital. “It sets up a heated clash in court next week in a case that is almost certainly headed back to the Supreme Court.”

The status and plight of 252 Venezuelan migrants deported to a Salvadoran prison last March under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act have emerged as one of the defining court fights of Trump’s second term, allowing the administration to test its mettle against the federal courts and the practical limits of judicial authority, on one of Trump’s biggest policy priorities.

It’s a fight that has also put U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who is overseeing the Alien Enemies Act case, squarely in the Trump administration’s crosshairs as he attempts to determine what due process protections, if any, the administration is legally obligated to provide and how far the courts can go to enforce them.

A new filing from the Justice Department made clear the administration believes it owes the migrants no additional due process at all. Should the court try to order otherwise, lawyers for the administration said they would promptly seek intervention from higher courts.

Past presidents such as Barack Obama were never forced to abide by the conditions left-wing judges are now imposing on Trump. When Obama exercised prosecutorial discretion on immigration, deferring removal proceedings for specific categories of aliens, it wasn’t controversial. But when Trump tries to deport alleged gang members who pose a national security threat, suddenly judges think they can dictate every detail of how the executive branch operates.

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The Trump administration made crystal clear in its filing that it views this fight as far from over. Regardless of how Boasberg rules, the case is almost certain to end up at the Supreme Court for review.

And I wouldn’t bet against the Trump administration in this case. The Supreme Court ruled last year to limit the use of universal injunctions, with implications for a wide range of challenges to federal laws and regulations. Despite the ruling, judges such as Boasberg continued to issue these rogue orders, hamstringing the Trump administration at every turn.

Trump himself has called for Boasberg’s removal from office. An impeachment resolution was introduced in the House last year and has garnered support from 23 Republicans. The administration even filed an ethics complaint against the judge, though a federal appeals judge dismissed it.

The question isn’t whether Trump should comply with every partisan order some rogue district judge dreams up. The question is whether we still have three coequal branches of government, or whether unelected judges now get to run the executive branch by decree. For too long, the answer has tilted in the wrong direction. The Trump administration’s willingness to finally stand up to judicial overreach is long overdue.

[H/T PJ Media]