FACT CHECK: No, The Tenth Circuit Court Of Appeals Has Not Reassigned Judge Tanya Chutkan

An image shared on Facebook claims the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has purportedly removed Judge Tanya Chutkan from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and reassigned her to a lower court.

Verdict: False

The claim is false and originally stems from a March 23 post shared by “America’s Last Line of Defense,” which is a satirical Facebook page.

Fact Check:

Chutkan recently prevented the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from attempting to “recoup $20 billion in Biden-era climate grants,” according to Politico. Chutkan previously granted 14 states, including New Mexico, the right to obtain “documents and answers to questions about DOGE’s plans to trim federal agencies,” Newsweek reported.

The Facebook image claims the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals has purportedly removed Chutkan from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and reassigned her to a lower court.

“The [Tenth] Circuit Removed Judge Tanya Chutkan and Reassigned Her to a Lower Court,” text superimposed on the image reads. “‘There’s no place in the appellate system for lawfare,’” a second set of text follows.

The claim is false and originally stems from a March 23 post shared by “America’s Last Line of Defense,” which is a satirical Facebook page. The Facebook page describes itself as “the flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash” before reiterating that “nothing on this page is real.” The original post has received 900 likes as of writing.

Likewise, the claim is not referenced on the website for the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in its “News” or “Decisions” sections. According to its “About” page, the Court’s jurisdiction does not include Washington, D.C. but instead focuses on “the six states of Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, plus those portions of the Yellowstone National Park extending into Montana and Idaho.”

In addition, a search of the website for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia does not generate the claim. President Donald Trump has not publicly commented on the claim, either. (RELATED: Is Trump Planning To Rename Washington, DC To The ‘District Of America?’)

Furthermore, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim. According to her biography, Chutkan was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in June 2014. Chutkan previously worked in private practice before joining the District of Columbia Public Defender Service and, later, the firm Boies, Schiller, & Flexner LLP.