A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump’s administration from sending a group of death row inmates to one of the harshest prisons in the United States. He challenged the president, saying even the worst criminals still have constitutional rights.
The case concerns 37 federal death row inmates whose sentences were commuted by former President Joe Biden in his final days in office. Under Biden’s decision, their punishment was changed from execution to life in prison.
However, after returning to the White House, President Donald Trump strongly criticized Biden’s move. He argued that the commutations of the death row inmates’ sentences were wrong and unfair to the victims’ families.
Advocates argue that President Donald Trump’s effort to send the inmates whom President Joe Biden saved from federal death row to the country’s most restrictive federal “supermax” prison is testing the limits of the justice system. https://t.co/te08uCIEjW pic.twitter.com/hOeNqSLEgN
— Law360 (@Law360) July 28, 2025
According to Al Jazeera, to rule them out, Trump claimed that some of Biden’s pardons and commutations were invalid because they were signed using an autopen device. However, legal experts blocked him.
“Any and all Documents, Proclamations, Executive Orders, Memorandums, or Contracts, signed by Order of the now infamous and unauthorised ‘AUTOPEN,’ within the Administration of Joseph R. Biden Jr., are hereby null, void, and of no further force or effect,” Trump said.
He further added, “Anyone receiving ‘Pardons,’ ‘Commutations,’ or any other Legal Document so signed, please be advised that said Document has been fully and completely terminated and is of no Legal effect.”
As Trump’s plan to rule out Biden’s decisions regarding the death row inmates failed, he took to Truth Social to make his stance clear. “To the 37 most violent criminals, who killed, r–ed, and plundered like virtually no one before them, but were just given, incredibly, a pardon by Sleepy Joe Biden. I refuse to wish a Merry Christmas to those lucky ‘souls’ but, instead, will say, GO TO HELL!”
Trump made it clear that even though he couldn’t alter the commutations, he wanted the inmates to face the toughest prison conditions possible. That’s when he advised Attorney General Pam Bondi to review where the 37 inmates were being held and to consider placing them in more restrictive facilities.
A senior official in Republican U.S. President Donald Trump’s Justice Department told staff on Monday that he has been directed to investigate clemency granted by Democrat Joe Biden in the waning days of his presidency to members of his family and death row inmates.
— Shehzad Younis شہزاد یونس (@shehzadyounis) June 3, 2025
Soon after, without consulting the legal system or any judge, the Department of Justice began efforts to transfer many of the inmates to the draconian supermax prison, the ADX Florence in Colorado.
The prison is known for its extremely strict conditions, where prisoners are locked in their cells for 23 hours a day, where they eat and shower alone. The cells are made of solid concrete, and human contact is very limited.
However, as this decision went public, Human rights groups like Amnesty International, strongly opposed Donald Trump. Further, twenty of the 37 inmates sued the government, for deciding to send them to ADX Florence, without a proper review process.
The U.S. Justice Department, under President Donald Trump, is investigating pardons issued by former President Joe Biden during his final days in office, focusing on preemptive pardons for family members and clemency for 37 federal death row inmates, according to a Reuters…
— Jhay Flanagan (@jhayflanagan) June 3, 2025
As the inmates argued that they were denied a fair chance to challenge the decision, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly agreed to temporarily block the transfers. Taking up the case on Feb. 11, Kelly said that while the inmates had “committed some of the most horrific crimes imaginable”, the Constitution still applies to them.
Kelly claimed, “Because ADX Florence is meant only for ‘inmates who have demonstrated inability to function in a less restrictive environment without being a threat to others,’ there are special procedures for transferring inmates there.”
He further added, “[plaintiffs are] right that if their redesignations to ADX Florence were predetermined—that is fully decided at the beginning of the process rather than the end—their due process rights were violated.”
Judge Kelly’s order stands as a reminder that even the government must follow the law in some cases.
