The Supreme Court spanked Judge Brian Murphy twice in one week for defying their orders.
The justices already called this judge defiant to his face.
But he just blocked Trump again – and this time the Supreme Court hasn't stopped him yet.
Judge Brian Murphy Has Already Been Reversed by the Supreme Court Twice
Murphy is a Biden appointee confirmed along strict party lines in December 2024 – jammed through during the lame-duck session after Democrats had already lost the White House and the Senate.
Last year, he blocked Trump from deporting criminal aliens to third countries – nations other than their home countries that had agreed to accept deportees.
The Supreme Court stepped in and stayed his injunction 6-3.
Murphy essentially said he didn't care – insisting a separate remedial order he had issued was still in effect.
The Supreme Court came back a second time, 7-2, and explicitly admonished him.
Even Justice Elena Kagan – an Obama appointee who had sided with Murphy's original decision – joined the majority in saying the judge had acted defiantly.
That is who just blocked Kristi Noem's termination of Ethiopia's temporary protected status.
https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/2042002415310835737?s=20
Kristi Noem Terminated Ethiopia TPS and Here Is Why She Was Correct
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem reviewed conditions in Ethiopia and consulted with the appropriate federal agencies.
Her conclusion: the armed conflict that originally justified the designation had improved to the point where Ethiopian nationals could safely return.
Ethiopia's TPS was granted by Biden in 2022 – always meant to be temporary.
Temporary. That's literally the name of the program.
Noem set the termination date for February 13, 2026.
Murphy blocked it on January 30 – two weeks before it was supposed to take effect.
Then on April 8, he issued a full memorandum and order making that block permanent through the litigation, writing that the administration had "disregarded both that foundational principle and the statutory scheme enacted by Congress."
DHS fired back immediately.
https://twitter.com/SenEricSchmitt/status/2042016418846130383?s=20
"This stay by radical, Biden-appointed Judge Brian Murphy is just the latest example of judicial activists trying to prevent President Trump from restoring integrity to America's legal immigration system," the department said. "Temporary means temporary. Country conditions – including armed conflicts – in Ethiopia have improved to the point that it no longer meets the law's requirement for Temporary Protected Status."
Biden Judges Are Blocking Trump TPS Terminations Across 13 Countries
Murphy is not the only judge running this play.
The Trump administration has moved to terminate TPS for 13 countries – Venezuela, Haiti, Syria, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Burma, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Yemen, and Ethiopia.
In virtually every case, a single Biden-appointed district court judge has stepped in to block it.
Venezuela's termination was blocked – until the Supreme Court intervened and let it proceed.
Somalia's termination was blocked – by a different judge in the same Massachusetts district as Murphy – even after DHS had already prevailed twice at the Supreme Court in a nearly identical case.
The USCIS website now reads like a legal battle map, listing blocked termination after blocked termination, each one noting that DHS "vehemently disagrees" with the ruling and is working with the DOJ on next steps.
This is coordinated judicial resistance masquerading as legal reasoning.
The Supreme Court has already signaled where it's headed.
The solicitor general told the justices that lower courts have "persisted with halting TPS terminations based on variations of the same reasoning that this Court already twice rejected" – and asked them to decide whether courts can even review a DHS secretary's TPS decisions at all.
The justices agreed the question needs to be settled and expedited arguments for April.
Murphy knows exactly what the Supreme Court is about to do.
He's watched them stay his orders twice in one year.
https://twitter.com/rparloff/status/2041993506281968090?s=20
He watched them take up the Haiti and Syria TPS cases on an expedited basis to put an end to this circuit-court whack-a-mole.
And he blocked the Ethiopia termination anyway.
Because the game isn't about Ethiopia.
The game is delay – block every termination at the district level, force the government to fight country by country, judge by judge, month by month, and keep as many people in the country as possible before the Supreme Court finally puts a stop to it.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform made the legal case plainly in their Supreme Court brief: under longstanding precedent, the president has inherent authority as Commander-in-Chief to protect the nation by controlling who enters and remains – which means Noem's termination decisions were presidential actions exempt from court review under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The Supreme Court is going to agree.
The only question is how much of Trump's second term these judges can eat up before that happens.
Sources:
- Alex Nitzberg, "Federal judge blocks Trump admin effort to end temporary protected status for Ethiopia," Fox News, April 9, 2026.
- "Biden-appointed judge who slapped down Trump deportation policy previously rebuked by SCOTUS," Fox News, February 26, 2026.
- "Temporary Protected Status and the Supreme Court: an explainer," SCOTUSblog, March 2026.
- "Supreme Court to hear expedited arguments on protected status for migrants," NPR, March 16, 2026.
- "FAIR Urges Supreme Court to Allow TPS Termination," FAIRUS.org, March 2026.
- "DHS Announces the Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopia," USCIS, December 12, 2025.
