A federal judge was skeptical at a hearing Wednesday of the Justice Department’s effort to sue all of Maryland’s federal court judges in a case testing the Trump administration’s effort to limit the power of the judiciary.

A judge is considering why it was necessary for the Trump administration to sue Maryland's entire federal bench over an order stopping the immediate deportation of immigrants challenging their removals.

The spectacle of the White House suing an entire district court in the name of the United States of America underscored just how rancorous relations between the two branches had become.