Then-Attorney Indira Talwani speaks at a confirmation hearing before becoming United States District Judge for the District of Massachusetts. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)
By Samuel Short July 30, 2025 at 8:38am
You know leftist judicial activism has gone too far when an outlet like the Washington Post calls it out.
On Tuesday, the outlet took aim at a U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani for issuing a preliminary injunction, refusing to stay her ruling pending appeal, against an act of Congress.
On July 4, Congress passed new legislation containing a provision that states some tax-exempt organizations that do abortions can no longer take reimbursements from Medicaid after October 1.
This was part of President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
Planned Parenthood sued over the provision and Talwani — an Obama appointed judge in Massachusetts since 2013 — sided with them.
Talwani agreed the provision was an unconstitutional bill of attainder.
According to the Legal Information Institute, bills of attainder are acts of Congress against persons, declaring their guilt without trial.
Talwani said in her ruling that bills of attainder can include different types of “legislative punishment.”
According to the Hill, Talwani wrote, “Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable.”
Have leftist federal judges overstepped their authority?
“In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.”
As WaPo notes, “allocating money is Congress’s core competency,” but don’t start singing the news outlet’s praises just yet as this is a one-off.
While recognizing, “This is the kind of lower court activism that gives the Trump administration fodder for its attacks on judges,” the piece also states, “There is no ‘judicial coup’ against President Donald Trump, as some of his supporters deliriously claim.”
Defunding Planned Parenthood has been part of the Trump administration’s agenda so this effort against Congress certainly looks like a way to go after the president with shaky legal reasoning.
Further, in June, the Supreme Court issued a stay against nationwide injunctions that were consistently hamstringing Trump’s efforts via executive order.
Recall another situation in March when ABC News reported Washington, D.C. District Court Judge James Boasberg quite literally told the Trump administration to turn around two planes reportedly full of alleged Venezuelan gang members headed for their home country.
Federal judges seem to constantly throw cold water on everything the president is trying to do.
The Washington Post is right about one thing: Talwani’s ruling is going to fuel this idea further.
Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. He holds a BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University and an MA in History from University College London. The views expressed in his articles are his own and do not reflect the views or opinions of Motlow State Community College.
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