Late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the District of Columbia blocked the Trump administration’s plans to resume federal executions next month, determining that the Justice Department’s proposed lethal injection procedure “is not authorized” by federal law.
The order at least temporarily calls off four executions scheduled for December and January, which would have been the first carried out by the federal government since 2003. The Justice Department filed a notice Thursday that it intends to appeal and filed a request to stay the judge’s injunction.
This escalating court battle over the federal death penalty comes as the Trump administration is forcefully countering national trends in capital punishment, scheduling multiple lethal injections at a time when executions have been declining.
