Since President Trump returned to the White House, activist judges — mostly from deep-blue strongholds like California, D.C., and Massachusetts — have lined up to sabotage his agenda.
These judges have thrown out wave after wave of temporary restraining orders and nationwide injunctions to block his key initiatives: shutting down toxic DEI programs, deporting dangerous criminal illegal aliens, and slashing wasteful foreign aid.
One example? The Biden administration handed out taxpayer dollars to bankroll a transgender opera in Colombia. That’s the kind of nonsense the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is trying to kill, but leftist judges won’t even let them access the data they need to clean house.
This isn’t just judicial overreach. It’s sabotage. The lower courts have become a shadow government, grinding the gears of executive action to a halt, not because the law demands it, but because the ideology of the judge demands it. Temporary restraining orders can hold up presidential action for weeks. And the worst offenders aren’t even trying to hide their motives. They issue nationwide injunctions to block federal policy with the stroke of a pen. A single judge in Rhode Island now has more power over Trump’s immigration agenda than the people’s elected commander-in-chief. That is not how a constitutional republic is supposed to work.
So what’s the fix? The obvious answer is for the Supreme Court to step in and shut down this lawfare. But the high court is dragging its feet. When Judge Amir Ali in D.C. tried to micromanage USAID from the bench, the Supreme Court didn’t strike him down. It issued a weak slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, Judge James Boasberg, another D.C. radical, wants to hold administration officials in contempt for deporting gang members. He’s even floating the idea of appointing a special prosecutor. The message from the Supreme Court’s silence? Go ahead, radicals, run wild.
The Supreme Court’s inaction emboldens the lower federal courts. And these aren’t isolated incidents. They’re part of a coordinated pattern. Activist judges are using obscure procedural tools to obstruct legitimate executive policies, often before they even take effect. It’s government by ambush, and it’s crippling the very ability of the president to govern.
Congress can impeach judges. But removing them requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which means flipping a dozen Democrats, which is highly unlikely, if not impossible. Today’s leftist judges are shameless. They won’t lose a wink of sleep over impeachment.
Even Chief Justice John Roberts seems more worried about scolding conservatives than defending the rule of law. He’s quick to warn about politicizing the judiciary when conservatives fight back but silent when left-wing judges ignore the Constitution.
There is, however, a powerful, legal, and long-overdue option: abolish their judgeships.
Congress has done it before. After Thomas Jefferson beat John Adams in 1800, Adams and the Federalists tried to entrench their power by stacking the courts with “midnight judges.” Jefferson and his allies fought back and abolished the courts themselves through the Judiciary Act of 1802, terminating the judges along with them. The Supreme Court backed it up in Stuart v. Laird, and that decision still stands today. Congress doesn’t need a supermajority to abolish lower courts. Just a majority. No impeachment, no drawn-out hearings, no smoke and mirrors, just a simple vote.
Just as with the Judiciary Act of 1802, Congress would pass a statute abolishing a number of courts (say, district courts in D.C., California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and other blue states). This abolition would prevent blue states from running to these courts in a way that jurisdiction stripping would not do as securely. A leftist judge like Boasberg in D.C., for instance, could argue that he maintains the inherent authority to enforce his previously issued orders, such as the one for which he found probable cause to hold Trump administration officials in contempt. Were his court abolished, however, his service, just like the service of the judges affected by the Judiciary Act of 1802, would be terminated. Congress pulled off a similar feat when it abolished a number of courts in D.C. in 1863.
Congress also should pass a law transferring pending and future cases. Congress has the power to determine the jurisdiction of the federal courts. It could, for instance, pass a statute mandating that all pending cases challenging administration policies be transferred to courts in, say, Missouri or Texas. Missouri is about to be the beneficiary of four new judicial appointees of President Trump.
Congress can even order that cases be transferred to certain divisions within districts. In Texas, for instance, some litigants who sued the Biden administration filed in the division in Amarillo to ensure the case was assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. Congress could order that challenges to administration policies be brought in Judge Kacsmaryk’s division: the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division.
And if anyone’s worried about the Senate filibuster, the Democrats will kill it the moment it suits them. They already tried. The only two Democrats who stopped it, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, are gone. The next time Democrats control everything, they won’t hesitate. They will ram through their agenda with zero apologies. Conservatives need to stop pretending we’re still playing a gentleman’s game. This is a street fight, and it’s long past time we started acting like it.
This is a crisis of constitutional proportions. The federal bench has been hijacked by leftists and their weakling enablers who think their robes give them license to rule. They are no longer interpreting the law. They’re imposing their politics. The founders never intended for unelected judges to act like unelected lawmakers. If anything, they warned against it. Alexander Hamilton wrote that the judiciary would be the “least dangerous” government branch. Well, not anymore.
Yes, abolishing judgeships would cause an uproar from the left. Let them scream. They’ve shown nothing but contempt for our institutions, traditions, and the rule of law when it stands in their way. If they want to talk about “norms,” let them start by respecting the Constitution. Until then, Congress must act. The stakes are too high to stand by and watch. It’s time to put these rogue judges on notice: If you keep blocking the will of the people, we will pull your chair out from under you.
The courts don’t run the country. The people do. And it’s time they remembered that.
Mike Davis is the founder and president of the Article III Project.
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