Activist judges are provoking a showdown with Trump

Donald Trump’s first two months in office already feel like they have contained more action than Joe Biden’s entire four years. But a great deal of that presidential vigour is being diffused and delayed by district court judges around the country.

Injunctions are a normal part of a court’s business, but the recent explosion in local judges issuing nationwide injunctions adds an unprecedented layer of sclerosis to the federal government — which wasn’t exactly good at moving quickly in the first place.