Attacks on judges from Republican members of Congress represent the subjugation of two branches of government under the president.
This article was originally published by The American Prospect.
Since returning to office, Donald Trump has been repeatedly blocked by judges ruling against his most extreme actions: unconstitutional impoundments of congressionally appropriated funds, illegal purges of civil servants, and executive orders attacking law firms that don’t accede to his arbitrary and capricious demands.
When Trump illegally deported over 200 Venezuelan immigrants last month and judges sought to stop him, House Republicans finally raced to act. But instead of joining the call for the protection of civil liberties and due process, GOP representatives opted to defend their leader. They didn’t merely engage in criticism of a judge’s decision; they made a direct challenge to the judiciary’s legitimacy and its power to constrain the president.
Within days, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) introduced articles of impeachment targeting D.C. Circuit Chief Judge James Boasberg, who had attempted to block the illegal deportations. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) introduced legislation to constrain the jurisdiction of district courts by limiting nationwide injunctions. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) floated the idea that Congress could cut funding for the federal judiciary, and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) said, “All options are still on the table.” At a Judiciary Committee hearing, framed as an inquiry into the “weaponization” of law, Republicans didn’t concern themselves with the lawlessness of the deportations, but instead attacked “activist” judges standing in Trump’s way.
The House GOP’s escalating attacks on the federal judiciary are part of a deliberate and dangerous campaign to enable Donald Trump to act as president without limit. The GOP-led House is clearing a path for Trump to undermine the only institution that currently stands against his many openly illegal activities: the courts.
These attacks are being financed by the world’s richest man and unelected co-president. In the immediate days after the court-curbing legislation and articles of impeachment were introduced, Elon Musk made significant donations to the very GOP lawmakers leading those efforts. This is power purchased in plain sight.
Musk’s DOGE is gutting public services and dismantling regulatory checks with impunity, and federal judges thus far have been the only check against his unconstitutional rampage through government. Enough GOP senators are “terrified” of Musk plowing his billions into primary challengers that the House’s proposed attacks on their coequal branch of government are closer to becoming reality than they have any right to be. The donations are transparently transactions, payments to clear obstacles in the way of Musk and Trump’s fascist and corporatist mission.
Lawmakers concerned about checks and balances and the rule of law would be vocally condemning Trump and Musk’s moves and asserting their congressional authority. That they are not doing so speaks volumes about their complicity in Trump’s destruction of government.
The attacks on the courts are all the more brazen given the 30-year right-wing project to reshape the federal judiciary. For decades, conservatives have successfully installed judges to implement right-wing, corporate-friendly policies, at the cost of bodily autonomy, labor protections, and voting rights. Progressives have rightly criticized these rulings and raised concerns about the democratic legitimacy of a judiciary heavily influenced by a malapportioned Senate and Republican presidents who lost the popular vote. Those critiques, and the broader debate over the role and scope of judicial power, are legitimate and necessary in a functioning democracy. Judicial review is far from perfect, but it remains a cornerstone of the American constitutional system, and has been used to expand the rights and freedoms of marginalized Americans.
What’s happening now goes far beyond good-faith disagreements. The GOP is attacking the judiciary for no longer being Trump’s ally. Judges are vilified, readily attacked and treated with contempt. The Trump administration even refused to follow a Trump-appointed judge’s order to cease its attack on the Associated Press. The message is clear: Judicial review is tolerable only when it rubber-stamps Trump’s policies. Anything less is a betrayal.
This isn’t politics as usual. The United States is drifting toward executive supremacy, a system in which law no longer restrains the chief executive. Instead, the president is free to inflict violence, whether literal or economic, on any judge who dares to check his power. And such actions are legitimated by nature of the unquestioned executive control over the tools of financial and military power.
Judges, honestly fearful, may soon feel compelled to choose between ruling as Trump wants them to rule or facing life-changing consequences. Under the system Trump is piloting toward, law is a tool to punish enemies and shield allies. Without Congress to act as a check on that power, the institutions designed to protect the public are being hollowed out.
Congress could respond to these attacks by passing legislation to protect judges from threats and attacks. Beyond that, Congress could reform the judicial selection process to enhance the perception of fairness in the courts. Additionally, Congress could educate the public on the importance of judicial independence by elevating, not demonizing, the circumstances of asylum seekers fleeing authoritarian states. Democrats can do this now as the minority opposition, using the momentum from massive protests against the administration as a springboard to get a message out: The rule of law is important, as are the consequences of its destruction.
If the House GOP continues down this path, it will dismantle the system its branch of government was created to uphold. Shielding illegal activity and undermining the courts doesn’t just damage institutions; it harms real people. It leaves Americans vulnerable to exploitation, unregulated greed, and a government that serves the powerful instead of the public.
These attacks on the law are a crisis. Pivot points like government funding fights represent an opportunity to alert the country that a potential dystopian future is becoming reality. Ignoring the authoritarian elephant in the room in hopes of 2026 midterm victories doing … something … to interrupt the executive branch’s disregard for law represents the absence of a strategy, rather than evidence of being savvy. The alternative to defending the rule of law is a country crushed under the weight of impunity, corruption, and authoritarian ambition.