Will Trump’s autopen executive order de-bench 237 leftist federal judges (including Ketanji Brown Jackson)?

 

By Andrea Widburg

(For more on the ramifications of this order, check out this post.)

On Thursday, I wrote that leftist judges on the bench are creating a form of tyranny, for they have arrogated to themselves the constitutional power of the Executive branch of government. There is no more balance. According to the Democrat appointees on the bench, none of Trump’s actions are solely within the discretion of the democratically elected chief executive. Instead, all are subject to judicial review and approval.

The day after I wrote that essay, Trump issued a statement via Truth Social voiding every document that was signed with an Autopen during Joe Biden’s presidency and threatening Biden along the way:

Any document signed by Sleepy Joe Biden with the Autopen, which was approximately 92% of them, is hereby terminated, and of no further force or effect. The Autopen is not allowed to be used if approval is not specifically given by the President of the United

States. The Radical Left Lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him. I am hereby cancelling all Executive Orders, and anything else that was not directly signed by Crooked Joe Biden, because the people who operated the Autopen did so illegally. Joe Biden was not involved in the Autopen process and, if he says he was, he will be brought up on charges of perjury. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Some have pointed out that this order is merely performative, since one president can always undo another’s executive orders.

As an aside, that line of argument is untrue. As we’ve seen, district courts have repeatedly held that Donald Trump cannot reverse the executive orders of previous presidents. That’s the special unwritten Donald Trump rule. Their rulings are always dressed up in fancy language and erroneous legal arguments, but the net result has been that what other presidents do, Trump cannot undo. (ChatGPT struggles with this concept, but you can get the idea of what’s going on here.)

More important than that argument’s inaccuracy is a practical reality: Voiding all of Biden’s Autopen signatures doesn’t just end policy Executive Orders. In theory, it also ends every judicial nomination Biden made, from Ketanji Brown Jackson on down.

This matters a great deal, not just because of Jackson, but because Biden was able to nominate the largest number of federal judges in a single term since the Carter administration, 235 in all. Most of them have proven to be distinguished only by their “diversity,” not their intelligence, legal acumen, or fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law.

I didn’t come up with this argument on my own. Others immediately noticed the ramifications of the Autopen order. However, since I first saw this theory in a social media post by Christina Aguayo, I will use her well-analyzed, balanced post to examine the argument. So far, I haven’t figured out what the holes are (if any exist) that make her argument too good to be true:

#news Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson could be in danger of losing her seat if a staffer used the autopen to sign the commission for Article III judges.

#DC

This after President Donald Trump announced that he will be invalidating any documents that were signed with the autopen.

Some are now saying that this could potentially include hundreds of federal judicial commissions.

Trump says that up to 92% of  Biden's documents were signed with the autopen, and without his personal approval or knowledge, rendering them "null and void" under longstanding federal law.

Among the high-profile figures potentially affected is Supreme Court Justice Jackson, whose 2022 commission was signed during Biden's early-term push for DEI.

#Trump

Trump frames the autopen controversy as a "shadow government" scandal, accusing Biden's aides of exploiting the 82-year-old Democrat's cognitive decline to bypass constitutional safeguards.

"The Radical Left Lunatics circling Biden around the beautiful Resolute Desk in the Oval Office took the Presidency away from him," Trump said, promising perjury charges against Biden if he denies staff overreach.

The president's plan builds on statutes tracing back to 1792, and codified today which mandate that judicial commissions be "signed by the President" and sealed with the Great Seal of the United States.

#ChristinaAguayoNews

Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution reinforces this by requiring the president to "commission all the officers of the United States."

In the landmark case Marbury v. Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that a signed commission completes an appointment, vesting the officeholder with authority—implying that the autopen could jeopardize enforceability.

Biden appointed 235 Article III judges during his term, embedding progressive priorities into the federal courts for generations.

Conservatives argue many selections, including Jackson's, were based on ideological alignment over rigorous vetting, contributing to rulings perceived as activist on issues like immigration and Second Amendment rights.

Naturally, the matter will end up before the Supreme Court, and that’s where things get interesting. Jackson will have to recuse herself, leaving a six-to-two conservative majority. If the conservative justices were like leftists and ruled solely according to their political orientation, all those leftist federal judges, including Jackson, would be gone.

However, conservative justices don’t rule that way. They actually follow the law. Moreover, Roberts, Gorsuch, and Comey Barrett have proven to be very wary of upsetting any apple carts, no matter where the law leads, and they often get Kavanaugh to trail in their wake.

That means that the squish conservatives might find a way to stop Trump from invalidating the Autopen signatures, even though Biden’s mental incapacity and testimony about his disconnect from every document that the Autopen signed should void all those documents. The American people elected Joe Biden, but unelected shadow figures were running the government, with Biden as their puppet.

However, the one thing that might help the squish conservatives is the fact that Jackson has proven to be a nightmare on the Court, controlled by feelings, not facts or law, and seemingly written by AI in teen mode. The always sweet Comey Barrett brutally slapped her down, and, as Jackson attacks her colleagues on the left, even they seem to have had their fill of her. The opportunity to rid themselves of this troublesome judge might steer them into correctly applying Article II, Section 3, and Marbury v. Madison.

Things are about to get very interesting.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/11/will_trump_s_autopen_executive_order_de_bench_237_leftist_federal_judges_including_ketanji_brown_jackson.html