Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (Louisiana) suggested on Tuesday that Congress might move to dismantle certain federal courts following at least 15 nationwide injunctions imposed by judges against executive orders issued by President Donald Trump.
“We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court,” Johnson told reporters. “We have power of funding over the courts and all these other things. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act.”
Johnson’s remarks were met with widespread criticism. “That is outrageous,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin (Maryland) told Talking Points Memo. “The proper response to disagreement with a particular court ruling is not to abolish the court. That’s obviously a naked assault on judicial independence.”
“It is outrageous to even think of defunding the courts,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (New York). “The courts are the bulwark against Trump, and the Republicans can’t stand it.”
Johnson floating the idea of eliminating federal courts is an alarming escalation of the far right’s attacks on the judiciary. “These are not ordinary times,” American Bar Association (ABA) President William R. Bay said in February. “The rule of law itself is at stake.”
The Trump administration has attempted to bypass, circumvent, and even dismantle the judiciary in various ways since taking over the White House.
For instance, in response to federal judges restraining or enjoining many of Trump’s executive orders, the administration has increasingly turned to the Supreme Court with emergency appeals to overturn unfavorable rulings. Emergency applications typically request swift judicial intervention, claiming urgency to prevent significant harm or injustice.
“The Trump administration has now filed six emergency applications at #SCOTUS challenging rulings by six different federal district judges spread across five different federal district courts,” Steve Vladeck, author of The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic, said on Bluesky. “Maybe it’s not the judges who are ‘rogue’?”
The Trump administration has also notably ignored judicial rulings, a move that legal scholars warn could push the country into a constitutional crisis. “It’s hard to see how this constitutional crisis doesn’t worsen in the coming months,” journalist Sasha Abramsky recently wrote for Truthout. “The courts are going to continue to issue rulings against the Trump administration’s flagrant disregard of the Constitution; and the administration is going to continue to find ways to ignore those rulings.”
Moreover, Trump and his allies have stepped up attacks on judges, law firms, and individual lawyers. Trump has personally targeted at least four major law firms that represented advocacy groups challenging his policies or supporting his political opponents. He also recently signed directives to rescind Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) benefits from employees at progressive nonprofits challenging his orders, and ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek sanctions against attorneys and law firms involved in what he deemed “frivolous, unreasonable, and vexatious litigation against the United States.”
“This action by the President of the United States is a chilling and unprecedented attack on the foundations of liberty and democracy. Good lawyers, regardless of ideology or party, will remain undeterred in the honorable pursuit of our profession. We will continue to stand up for the people and the rule of law,” Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.
Trump has also called on Republican lawmakers to consider legislation to limit the scope of federal injunctions, in order to restrict judicial authority. “STOP NATIONWIDE INJUNCTIONS NOW, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. If Justice Roberts and the United States Supreme Court do not fix this toxic and unprecedented situation IMMEDIATELY, our Country is in very serious trouble!” Trump recently wrote on Truth Social.
Meanwhile, House Republicans have launched impeachment efforts against federal judges who have ruled against the Trump administration. This effort is backed by Elon Musk, who has called for the judges’ removal and donated to lawmakers supporting impeachment proceedings, according to The New York Times.
“Threatening judges with impeachment or retribution for upholding their oaths of office and doing their jobs under the Constitution is an act of outlaw tyranny, not constitutional government,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland).
The ABA has issued multiple statements criticizing these attacks on judicial independence and the rule of law. “[G]overnment actions evidence a clear and disconcerting pattern. If a court issues a decision this administration does not agree with, the judge is targeted. If a lawyer represents parties in a dispute with the administration, or if a lawyer represents parties the administration does not like, lawyers are targeted,” the ABA said. “These actions highlight escalating governmental efforts to interfere with fair and impartial courts, the right to counsel and due process, and the freedoms of speech and association in our country.”
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
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