Trump's Rough Week

Judge Crenshaw singled out Mr. Blanche for criticism in his 32-page opinion, pointing to statements he had made that prosecutors reawakened a dormant investigation into Mr. Abrego Garcia only after a different judge in Maryland questioned the administration’s decision to deport him — along with scores of other immigrants — to a notorious Salvadoran prison in March 2025.

The decision, filed in Federal District Court in Nashville, marked the first time that a judge had dismissed a case brought by President Trump’s Justice Department for being rooted in vindictive motives. It showed an emerging willingness among jurists across the country to publicly call out the administration for prioritizing its political imperatives above the pursuit of actual justice.

Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is still fighting the administration’s efforts to expel him from the country, is perhaps the best-known symbol of Mr. Trump's aggressive deportation agenda. His serial legal battles against the administration have dragged on for more than a year, reaching all the way to the Supreme Court. His release from criminal charges because of what Judge Crenshaw called their “vindictive taint” was another blow to the president’s immigration crackdown, which had already been battered by, among other things, the killings of two protesters in Minnesota by federal agents.

Judge Crenshaw opened his ruling by quoting Robert H. Jackson, a former attorney general and Supreme Court justice whose reputation for probity has made him something like the patron saint of federal prosecutors.

“Then-Attorney General Robert H. Jackson warned his fellow prosecutors long ago of the danger of picking the person first and the crime second,” Judge Crenshaw wrote. “‘Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted.’”

“That,” the judge concluded, “is the situation here.”