President Donald Trump’s second term has been plagued by leftist-led lawfare — with unelected, inferior court judges usurping executive authority in an effort to obstruct or dictate presidential actions.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer admitted in a March interview with Kristen Welker that lawfare is part of Democrats’ success strategy.
“Now we have to fight that back in every single way. And we actually have had over 100 cases in the courts where we’ve had a very good record of success. So Donald Trump, infuriated by that success, said judges should be impeached,” Schumer said. “Democrats in the Senate will not impeach judges. Full stop.”
“And democracy is at risk. Look, Donald Trump is a lawless, angry man. He thinks he should be king. He thinks he should do whatever he wants, regardless of the law, and he thinks judges should just listen to him,” Schumer stated.
But Trump pointing out judicial overreach doesn’t put “democracy … at risk” any more than Schumer did when he warned about the dangers of unelected judges dictating national policy.
“[R]ight-wing activists are exploiting the current makeup of the judicial system to circumvent the legislation process and overturn the will of the American people. … We can’t let unelected judges thrash our democracy,” Schumer said on April 10, 2024. Schumer’s comments were highlighted in a recent release from the Senate Judiciary Committee pointing out Democrats’ hypocrisy on nationwide injunctions.
Schumer was hardly alone. Senate Judiciary Democrats one year prior said: “In the coming days, the Supreme Court is expected to decide if one activist judge can single-handedly disregard decades of medical consensus.”
Or take Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin in April of 2023 who stated: “This weekend, a single federal judge in Texas issued a decision that seeks to deny millions of women across the country access to an FDA-approved medication. …” He also asserted that the injunction was a “draconian ruling.”
Rhode Island Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse warned in May of 2024 that judges are usurping the authority of the Congressional branches with their decisions. “Appellate courts can make sweeping decisions endangering the American principle that policy-making belongs in elected branches and not with judges,” Whitehouse said.
“The Constitution’s ‘case or controversy’ requirement protects against free-range judicial policy-making …” Whitehouse said, adding several weeks later that “the Constitution limits courts to deciding individual cases or controversies, not writing ‘decisions for the ages,’ to keep unaccountable judicial power in check.”
Democrat Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono said on April 26, 2023, that “activist plaintiffs should not be able to hand-pick individual judges to set nationwide policy.”
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said on September 14, 2022, that “It just can’t be right that one district judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks and leave it stopped for the years that it takes to go through the normal process.”
And yet everything Democrats warned about before Trump returned to office is exactly what they’re either now celebrating or dismissing.
Some examples of judicial tyranny include District Court Judge John McConnell Jr., who issued a temporary restraining order in February blocking Trump from pausing federal spending after Trump issued a freeze to assess the mass waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars. Notably, McConnell had seemingly compared Trump to a tyrant and said it is the “courts” that have been responsible for keeping the country on track. Then there was Colorado Federal Judge Gordon Gallagher — a Biden appointee — who blocked the Trump administration from deporting the family of radical Islamist terrorist Mohamed Soliman. Soliman allegedly set a dozen Jewish demonstrators on fire during a recent peaceful demonstration calling for the release of hostages.
And on Monday night, a rogue federal judge openly defied the Supreme Court, claiming a ruling from the highest court of the land is irrelevant and that the lower court order still remains in effect.
As described in these pages by Justin Evan Smith, these rulings are not “judicial review, but judicial rule.” Both parties have warned about judicial supremacy. But now, with Trump back in office, Democrats are accusing Trump of creating a constitutional crisis by saying what Democrats had said previously — not because they mean it, but because, as Schumer said, it’s part of Democrats’ strategy to undermine the Trump administration.
Faced with a despotic judiciary, Trump must refuse obedience to a faction of activist judges who are attempting to seize powers never granted to them.
As I’ve written before, “There is a judicial coup underway in this country. The presidency cannot remain functional — and the Republic cannot remain sovereign — if its core powers are subject to the whims of rogue, lawless judges.”
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
