Peak Judicial Stupidity Achieved: Federal Judge Makes Himself the 'Webmaster' for Agency Websites

A federal judge has ordered the Department of Health and Human Services, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to restore some information removed from agency websites since President Trump's inauguration. I am not making that up. Judge John D. Bates, a gift to us from George W. Bush, has granted "a temporary restraining order sought by the group Doctors for America, which argued that its members used the websites when treating patients and conducting research." [Pro Tip: If your doctor is searching HHS, FDA, or CDC public webpages to treat you, get a new doctor.]

Bates found that the challengers were likely to succeed in their claims that the Department Health and Human Services, CDC and FDA acted unlawfully when they stripped medical information from public-facing websites.
"It bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants' actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare," he wrote. Citing declarations from two doctors filed in the case, Bates said if they "cannot provide these individuals the care they need (and deserve) within the scheduled and often limited time frame, there is a chance that some individuals will not receive treatment, including for severe, life-threatening conditions. The public thus has a strong interest in avoiding these serious injuries to the public health."
His order directs the agencies to restore earlier versions of their websites by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday. It comes after Bates held a hearing on the matter Monday.

The claims are utterly ludicrous.

Doctors for America, whose members practice medicine in all 50 states, said the removals went beyond the terms of Trump’s executive order and have left the public exposed to a broad swath of health risks. Zachary R. Shelley, an attorney for the group, described it in a court hearing Monday as “a major health-care nightmare.”
“Every day that this goes on, there’s harm to the doctors, the patients and public health,” Shelley said.
Some information scrubbed from the CDC’s “Social Vulnerability Index,” for example, was key to identifying high-risk hot spots during the coronavirus pandemic, Doctors for America said in a court filing. Two FDA websites taken offline were being used to improve clinical studies by tracking efforts to diversify trial participants. Other online resources covered health risks for youths, HIV monitoring and the National Assisted Reproductive Technologies Surveillance System, a database used by fertility experts to track nationwide success rates from procedures such as in-vitro fertilization.
“The agencies’ actions create a dangerous gap in the scientific data available to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, halt or hamper key health research, and deprive physicians of resources that impact clinical practice,” attorneys for the doctors group at the nonprofit Public Citizen said in court papers.
They argued that CDC and FDA officials violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that sets out specific steps for federal agencies that are implementing new policies, and the Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires officials to “ensure that the public has timely and equitable access to the agency’s public information.”

The most bizarre claim is that the Administrative Procedure Act covers agency webpage content. Equally ridiculous is the claim that the Paperwork Reduction Act forbids agencies from taking down web pages.

The judges now actively involved in obstructing the Trump administration's agenda are sort of reminiscent of three-year-olds who've learned a curse word and know it upsets adults, so they run around the living room screaming *%@*!! over and over, to get attention. No one believes serious doctors would stop treating patients if they couldn't get to the CDC website.

These judges are waging an unprecedented assault on legitimate presidential authority, all the way down to dictating what webpages the government has.

This is absurd. https://t.co/4XJbI4nTDo
— Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) February 11, 2025

I've used this clip several times because, as a political writer, I find it explains so many things. [If you haven't watched Mr. Inbetween, you owe it to yourself to fix that.]

These judges aren't responding to the law or to injustice. They are responding to the clapping seals on the left cheering them on. The same group of goobers who sat on their hands for four years and let Biden do whatever the hell he wanted are suddenly managing websites and telling the president he has no authority to determine where the nation's money is going.

This will not stop until there are, as Ray in the clip says, consequences. I think Mike Johnson should start introducing articles of impeachment for judicial overreach, because an impeachable offense is exactly what the House of Representatives declares it to be. It doesn't matter if the process removes the judge. Hauling these judges before Congress for a trial, making them pay for legal assistance, putting their decisions under a spotlight, and generally inconveniencing them would make a lot of other judges prone to the same behavior think twice. Remember: The process is the punishment.

I'm not to this point yet.

People are all like “Trump should just ignore the order”, “Do not comply”, well you sound like idiots. The right needs to be better than that. There’s a right and wrong way to beat the left.

Trump should drone strike the judge. https://t.co/51isUqEv1k
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) February 11, 2025