When a Judge Stops a President in his Tracks

When a federal judge blocked part of Trump’s latest executive order (EO #14168, Doctors For America v. OPM et al., 25-cv-322), the reactions were predictable. Supporters of the administration were furious, calling it judicial overreach. The President’s critics saw it as a necessary check on executive power.

But as they argued about judicial overreach and public policy, pundits and talking heads on both sides of the 24-hour news cycle failed to recognize the judge's order for what it really was—a centuries-old legal instrument, inherited from the English Court of Equity, known as an injunction—more specifically, a preliminary injunction.

A preliminary injunction does not determine the final outcome of a case. It is a temporary measure meant to maintain the status quo while the legal process plays out. Courts do not issue these orders based on whether they agree with a particular policy. Instead, they apply a combination of objective standards designed to ensure the measure is used conservatively, and subjective equitable standards to ensure that it is applied fairly, with the goal of preventing the civil action from becoming a weapon in and of itself.

Yet in the rush to reduce everything to a political power struggle, much of the discussion has overlooked the procedural safeguards built into the injunction process. These safeguards exist to ensure that irreversible harm does not occur while the court decides the merits of a case. Without them, lawsuits could become meaningless, with harm already done before the legal process could reach a conclusion.

The reality is that preliminary injunctions are not a tool for judges to shape policy, but a mechanism to prevent disruption and preserve fairness. If anything, this case is a reminder that the law—when properly understood—is far more structured and restrained than the daily news cycle makes it seem. In a time when legal decisions are instantly dissected and distorted by partisan narratives, it’s more important than ever to take a step back and understand the mechanisms that actually govern our system.