On one hand, Donald Trump won the White House with a landslide. Thanks to a sweep of swing states, he won the Electoral College with 312 votes. He also won the popular vote, too, which Democrats insisted, until election night, is the indication of true democracy.
American voters also favored Republicans in both the House and Senate.
Undeterred by democracy in action, Democrats are coming after President Trump from a different institution: the judiciary.
A number of different federal district court judges have issued rulings opposing the administration
Two of the most notable have been Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for North California, who has ordered the reinstatement of tens of thousands of federal employees fired as part of Trump’s effort to trim government spending. Judge James Boasberg, of the Washington, D.C., District Court, has ruled against Trump’s deportation of hundreds of immigrants believed to be members of violent criminal gangs.
Both were appointed by Democrats, Alsup by Bill Clinton, Boasberg by Barack Obama.
So was Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Joe Biden appointee. She has issued a preliminary injunction barring the Pentagon from enforcing Trump’s executive order banning transgenders from the military.
Reyes, who bizarrely cited the musical "Hamilton" in her 79-page ruling, seems uncertain that Trump’s order has any constitutional issues at all.
"The court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes," Reyes wrote, delaying her order until Friday morning to allow time for the Trump administration to appeal. "We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect."
El Salvador officials – who have agreed to imprison the deportees – confirm that 238 are Venezuelans who are members of the known criminal gang Tren de Aragua, NewsNation reports. Twenty-three more detainees are members of MS-13, an international gang that was birthed in Los Angeles.
Boasberg, however, issued a restraining order that would have prevented the deportations in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and leftist legal advocacy group Democracy Forward.
The lawsuit challenged the administration’s authority to deport under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act because the U.S., the groups say, is not in the midst of a “declared war.”
The Trump administration denied Boasberg’s verbal order to return the flight because it was already in international air space, the administration said.
Boasberg set a deadline on noon ET on Monday for the Justice Department to provide additional information on the administration's actions, insisting that the department disclose highly classified information about the deportation operation.
Phillip Jauregui, senior counsel and director of the Center for Judicial Renewal at AFA Action, says Boasberg is motivated by politics.
"You have a radical Democrat Marxist judge trying to keep illegal aliens, who are really future Democrat voters, in the country. That's what it's about," he tells AFN. "Never mind the fact that they're violent thugs. He doesn't care. He wants to preserve the Democrat Party and their base and is allowing Americans to be in danger of these violent criminals."
GOP support for Trump
Trump’s Justice Department and congressional Republicans are backing the president.
“President Trump has the complete, constitutional authority to deport criminal illegal aliens, especially the members of Foreign Terrorist Organizations like Tren de Aragua," Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn told Fox News Digital in a statement. "With his deportation of hundreds of gang members to El Salvador, the President is fully complying with judicial orders and upholding the rule of law.”
There are actions that Congress can take to reign in judges bent on undermining presidential authority, says J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department attorney and founder of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.
“Congress has three checks on the judiciary," he advises. "It can defund the judiciary. It can create or eliminate the judiciary under the Constitution, meaning the lower federal courts like these federal district courts. Thirdly, it can impeach. So, Congress has lots of tools available to deal with out-of-control judges. It just has to decide to pick up which tool they want and use it."
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) introduced articles of impeachment against Boasberg on Tuesday.
“He is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and should be removed from office,” Gill wrote on X.
Impeachment, however, is a detailed process.
House Republicans alone can draft articles of impeachment and advance them to the Senate with a simple majority vote.
But removing a sitting judge would require a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate where Republicans have a simple majority with 53 seats.
The Supreme Court could address the symptoms by reversing lower court decisions, but that would not address the root problem.
Jauregui prefers the purse strings and thinks getting the Department of Government Efficiency involved would be helpful if the Supreme Court chooses not to act.
“You've got a couple bad actors that need to be dealt with by the Supreme Court and if they'll do it, this crisis will pass. If the Supreme Court doesn't do it, then Congress is going to have to get involved. Perhaps they send Elon Musk and DOGE over to look through the judicial budget. They reduce the judicial budget, but this problem is going to get solved one way or another,” he said. “The American people are not going to stand for little fake presidents in black robes trying to run this nation."
