{"id":5931,"date":"2025-02-09T12:16:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-09T12:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/as-trump-steamrolls-washington-courts-flex-their-power-to-slow-him-down\/"},"modified":"2025-02-09T12:16:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T12:16:04","slug":"as-trump-steamrolls-washington-courts-flex-their-power-to-slow-him-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/as-trump-steamrolls-washington-courts-flex-their-power-to-slow-him-down\/","title":{"rendered":"As Trump steamrolls Washington, courts flex their power to slow him down"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cshock and awe\u201d assertion of executive power has hit a wall in the courtroom \u2014 at least for now.<\/p>\n

At least nine federal judges \u2014 from Washington, D.C., to Washington state \u2014 have halted aspects of Trump\u2019s early-term blitz, from his effort to rewrite the Constitution\u2019s birthright citizenship guarantee to his sweeping effort to freeze federal spending to his plans to break and remake the federal workforce.<\/p>\n

That trend reached a crescendo Friday when U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols \u2014 a Trump appointee \u2014 blocked a plan<\/a> by Trump and Elon Musk to put 2,200 USAID employees on leave, part of a rapid-fire effort to dismantle the foreign aid agency. Hours later, a federal judge in New York blocked Musk and his allies<\/a>from accessing sensitive Treasury records, citing a risk of improper disclosure or hacking. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, an Obama appointee, was the most sweeping of its kind so far.<\/p>\n

All the rulings so far are temporary: They prevent the policies from taking effect while the courts consider the legal challenges more fully. And looming over them all is the Supreme Court, which is almost certain to have the final say on Trump\u2019s extraordinary assertions of executive power. Trump\u2019s legal strategy revolves around finding a sympathetic audience there: The high court has a six-justice conservative supermajority, including three of Trump\u2019s own appointees.<\/p>\n

But even if the wins for Trump\u2019s adversaries are short-lived, they\u2019re accomplishing one thing: slowing down Trump\u2019s effort to project his administration as an unstoppable, invincible force able to steamroll any impediments to his assertion of power.<\/p>\n

As dozens of lawsuits challenging Trump\u2019s early policies are rushing through several strategically chosen federal district courts around the country \u2014 and as a Republican-controlled Congress has shown little interest in clashing with the leader of their party \u2014 these courts have emerged as the only institutions with the power and the will to check Trump\u2019s onslaught.<\/p>\n

In some cases, judges are voicing distress and even visceral fury as they stand in Trump\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

“It has become ever more apparent that to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals,\u201d said U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, a Seattle-based appointee of Ronald Reagan, as he blocked Trump\u2019s birthright citizenship policy<\/a>. \u201cThe rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Coughenour spoke most forcefully, he hasn\u2019t been alone. He, Nichols, Engelmayer and at least six other federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties have disrupted major portions of Trump\u2019s first-month agenda.<\/p>\n