Federal judges around the country have blocked the Trump administration’s executive orders, policies, and dictates dozens of times as unlawful and even unconstitutional. Now Republicans are trying to use the massive budget bill, which is currently being overhauled in the Senate, to limit the judiciary’s power to curb presidential abuses.
The bill passed by the House of Representatives last month along party lines included a provision that would limit judges’ ability to hold government officials in contempt for violating court orders. Some Republicans who voted to approve the bill later expressed regret over the contempt provision, and Senate Democrats vowed to fight it.
Draft bill text released last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee shows Republicans in the upper chamber are taking a slightly different approach. Instead of focusing on courts’ contempt power, Senate Republicans revised the provision to limit judges’ authority to issue injunctions and restraining orders against the U.S. government in the first place.
“At a time when the President is violating the Constitution as never before seen in American history, it makes no sense to make it harder for courts to issue injunctions,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley School of Law, by email. Last month, Chemerinsky decried the House provision as unconstitutional.
“Republicans are targeting nationwide injunctions because they’re beholden to a President who is breaking the law — but the courts are not,” said Josh Sorbe, spokesperson for Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., by email.
Durbin, who spoke against the House contempt provision on the Senate floor last week, is the Democratic whip and ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Their newfound frustration is ironic, given they cheered and even asked for nationwide injunctions themselves during the Biden Administration.”
