House Dems count on courts to curb Trump’s controversial orders
Members look to the federal judges to block Trump’s overreaching actions, but fear a crisis if the administration defies judicial rulings.
First Things First
House Democrats have expressed cautious optimism that President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Department of Government Efficiency leader Elon Musk and the rest of the Trump administration will comply with a recent series of judicial rulings that block portions of executive orders from taking effect.
In conversations with nearly a dozen members on Tuesday—from leadership to rank-and-file and across the Democratic Caucus’s ideological spectrum—the emerging consensus is that, without any institutional power to resist what they view as extreme executive overreach, the courts are their best hope in preventing a constitutional crisis.
“I’m grateful for the judges and the work that they have done to at least try to put some guardrails on these illegal executive orders that President Trump and Elon Musk are trying to enforce,” Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) told me as she was walking into a closed-door House Democratic Caucus meeting.
Brown added that members tried to raise flags and sound the alarms about the possibility that Trump would push the limits of his executive authority before the election, but to no avail. So while the courts do their work, House Democrats are focused on mobilizing public sentiment against Trump and DOGE’s actions.
“What’s shocking to me is how shocked people are that this is happening,” she said. “Clearly, we weren’t loud enough or reaching enough people. So I think it's important right now in this moment to use every level of communication to try to get the word out.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, admitted that Democrats’ legislative power is limited. As a result, they have to actively make voters aware of how dire they believe the moment is.
“It’s very important that the public understands what is at stake when you have Republicans, including senators, saying that they’re not concerned that Trump and Vice President Vance are saying we don’t have to listen to the courts,” she told me. “That is a constitutional crisis. And that, by the way, is how dictators come into power.”
In the Know
Three judges have issued preliminary injunctions blocking an executive order calling for the end of birthright citizenship for children born in the US to undocumented immigrants—a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, according to legal experts. The case is expected to reach the Supreme Court, which Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) says is Trump’s ultimate goal.
“He’s going to say whatever we can take up to the Supreme Court, that's my Supreme Court, because I put three of [the justices] in place, and they'll do pretty much what I want them to do,” Ivey told me. “And that’s probably right, because, as you saw, they immunized him from any kind of anything. He can do anything as president, basically, under that Supreme Court ruling at issue last year.”
After the Trump administration attempted to freeze federal funds through an executive order, a federal judge ordered the administration to restore the improperly frozen funds, stating that the administration violated a previous court ruling.
The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency has also encountered legal obstacles
A federal judge temporarily blocked DOGE from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment systems, citing concerns over the potential improper disclosure of sensitive data. The order mandates that any data already collected be destroyed following a lawsuit from 19 Democratic state attorneys general.
Allow Me to Explain
The stakes couldn’t be higher. The federal government operates on a system of checks and balances among the legislative, executive and judicial branches.