FILE PHOTO: U.S. flag and Judge gavel are seen in this illustration taken, August 6, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

By Nate Raymond and Jan Wolfe

(Reuters) -A federal judge on Tuesday threw out an unusual lawsuit the Trump administration filed against every federal judge in Maryland over an order slowing down efforts to swiftly deport people it believes are in the country illegally.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen, an appointee of Donald Trump from Roanoke, Virginia, brought in to oversee the case in Baltimore, marked a setback for the administration's battle against judicial orders stymieing the president's agenda.

The ruling highlighted the judiciary's increasing frustration with the Trump administration's aggressive litigation tactics, which have included filing misconduct complaints against judges and stonewalling an order to provide details about the illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged gang member, to El Salvador.

Cullen said dismissal of the case against the Maryland judges was clearly warranted, and that "to hold otherwise would run counter to overwhelming precedent, depart from longstanding constitutional tradition, and offend the rule of law."

Cullen also said Trump administration officials have repeatedly smeared judges by using words like "rogue," "unhinged," and "radical" to describe them.

"Although some tension between the coordinate branches of government is a hallmark of our constitutional system, this concerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate," Cullen wrote.

Representatives for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department filed the case in June after the Maryland court in May adopted a standing order that automatically blocks for two business days the deportation of migrants in the state who file new habeas lawsuits challenging their detention.

Chief U.S. District Judge George Russell issued the order as the Republican president's administration moved to fulfill Trump's pledge to conduct mass deportations.

Russell, who like most judges in the Maryland court was appointed by a Democratic president, cited a "recent influx of habeas petitions concerning alien detainees purportedly subject to improper and imminent removal from the United States."

A habeas petition is a legal challenge by a person in custody to argue that their detention is unlawful and violates their constitutional rights.

The Justice Department called the order an "egregious example of judicial overreach," following a series of injunctions in lawsuits that have prevented the Trump administration from fully executing his policies.

Rather than challenge the policy by pursuing an appeal in one such lawsuit, the Justice Department in June sued the 15 judges and the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, arguing it was an unlawful policy.

Cullen said the Trump administration could have made its arguments through a traditional appeal, rather than ensnaring an entire judicial body in a "novel and potentially calamitous litigation."

(Reporting by Nate Raymond and Jan Wolfe; Additional reporting by Andrew Goudsward; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Sophie Walker and Bill Berkrot)