A pro-Trump legal organization founded by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has filed a lawsuit against Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, marking a long-shot effort as Trump allies push back against court rulings that have blocked key executive actions.
The suit, brought by the America First Legal Foundation, targets Roberts in his role as head of the U.S. Judicial Conference, as well as Robert J. Conrad, director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Fox News reported.
The complaint alleges that both the Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office have engaged in regulatory actions that exceed their constitutional mandate, arguing such actions fall outside the judiciary’s core responsibilities of adjudicating cases and providing administrative support.
The lawsuit also contends that records maintained by the U.S. Judicial Conference, under Roberts’ leadership, should be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests as a consequence of the alleged regulatory actions.
In its lawsuit, America First Legal cited actions taken in 2023 by both the Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office to “accommodate” congressional requests to investigate alleged ethical misconduct by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The group also pointed to efforts by these bodies to develop or adopt an “ethics code” for Supreme Court justices as part of its complaint.
“Under our constitutional tradition, accommodations with Congress are the province of the executive branch,” AFL said, adding: “The Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office are therefore executive agencies,” and should therefore be overseen the president, not the courts.
The U.S. Judicial Conference serves as the national policymaking body for the federal judiciary. Led by the Chief Justice, it is responsible for making biannual recommendations to Congress as necessary, Fox noted.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts functions under the direction of the Judicial Conference, providing administrative support for the federal court system. Its duties include managing budgets, coordinating logistics, and compiling data, among other operational responsibilities.
Led by attorney Will Scolinos, plaintiffs for AFL argued in the suit that the Judicial Conference’s duties are “executive functions,” and as such, they are functions the AFL alleges must be supervised by executive officers “who are appointed and accountable to other executive officers.”
Further, AFL argued, “Courts definitively do not create agencies to exercise functions beyond resolving cases or controversies or administratively supporting those functions.”
They believe this is enough to place the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts under the control of the Executive Branch. Scolinos argued that AFL’s proposed outline “preserves the separation of powers but also keeps the courts out of politics.”
A Trump appointee, U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, has been assigned the case.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a solid 6-3 majority ruling, allowed the Trump administration to enforce its ban on transgender troops.
The Supreme Court verdict gives the White House a significant win even though it did not address the case’s fundamental merits or President Donald Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order barring transgender service members from the United States military.
“If the separation of powers means anything, the government obviously suffers irreparable harm when an unelected judge usurps the role of the political branches in operating the Nation’s armed forces,” U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in his filing.
The president celebrated the ruling with a post on his Truth Social account featuring a report summarizing the victory.
In February, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a memorandum disqualifying service members with gender dysphoria and ordering their immediate separation from the military. The policy included an exemption for individuals with gender dysphoria who had never attempted to transition and wished to serve under their birth sex, Courthouse News Service reported.
