Here's a list of court orders that have put a halt to various Trump/DOGE firings and spending cuts. It's by no means comprehensive, just everything I could find at the moment. Its purpose is to show that neither Trump nor DOGE are steamrollers. They've had some wins, but they've had a lot of setbacks too.
- Judge ordered DEI funding at NIH restored. NIH is resisting.
- Office of Special Counsel rules that some firings were unlawful, though it's unclear how many.
- Manhattan judge blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury payment systems.
- DOGE might be killed entirely because administration refuses to say who runs it. Possibly unconstitutional if not run by Senate-confirmed nominee.
- Judge calls White House ban of AP over Gulf of Mexico "discriminatory and problematic," and sets hearing for March.
- A federal judge temporarily blocked ICE from immigration raids in churches in 35 states.
- Trump has agreed to free up $2 billion in funds for Pennsylvania that had been "paused."
- Multiple judges have halted Trump's ban on birthright citizenship.
- Judge blocked DOGE from accessing sensitive info at OPM and Dept. of Education.
- FDA rehires its medical device staff after laying them all off and then panicking over what they'd done.
- Judge killed Trump's temporary payment freeze in 22 states. Trump claimed to have already rescinded the freeze, so nyah nyah. But it's not clear if Trump is complying.
- A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to reverse its foreign aid funding freeze on existing programs.
- A judge halted all firings at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. The CFPB's director was also ordered to maintain all records and not to transfer money out of the bureau’s reserve funds. In response, nearly all employees were placed on administrative leave.
- A federal judge blocked Trump’s ban on refugee admissions, saying the directive appeared to amount to a “nullification” of federal law.
"DOGE might be killed entirely because administration refuses to say who runs it. Possibly unconstitutional if not run by Senate-confirmed nominee."
I have a feeling that Trump will dissolve DOGE even before it is found unconstitutional. Like a lawyer withdrawing his leading question even before the judge rules on it. It has served its purpose of terrorizing the federal workforce without leaving behind Trump's direct fingerprints.
+10.
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While I will admit it is too early to confidently despair, it is also way too early to count Trump defeats. Both because it takes time to get to the end of the litigation and becasue in the meantime they continue taking these, and every day, other lawless or just unethical actions.
And that does not even ask the question, what will they do if/when they lose?
Second that
iiuc court rulings against a president are meaningless if Congress wont enforce them
Given our courageous legislature , does Kibg 2.0 care what a judge says anymore ?
They're willing to let results at district-court and even appeal level slide, though also trying to evade many orders, and don't mind freeing up money to states trump won and/or that are safely red or narrowly red but in doubt, like PA (though the NIH seems like a special target even though it hurts in GA). This is partly because time favors the Vought goal of obliteration, and partly because they're looking for a better-than-even shot that SCOTUS will uphold some of the more extravagant claims for executive absolutism.
Meanwhile reports are that the next few days or so will be a real crunch time for House Dems-- hold firm to conditioning votes on a complete halt to the illegalities, or provide enough votes to overcome the nutball caucus among the Rs and keep the government "open" (such as it is). I don't see a middle way.
Rs supposedly are pressuring Dems by saying trump will never agree to that kind of condition. If so, I'd say fine, let him veto it. The smart folks tell us the party in power always gets the blame for shutdowns; may as well have trump explicitly make himself the face of this one.
Clarification. NIH is in MD. CDC is in GA.
I feel confident that he is attacking the NIH because they made him look bad/stupid during COVID. Same for CDC.
Thanks for the correction-- late night fog. As for why he hates them especially, 100% agree. He has absolute confidence he can BS his way through anything, all things being equal, but consistent streams of reality-based information that puts people on guard make it infinitely harder for him.
The Republicans have nothing to put on the table in exchange for Dem help on the CR or budget. They’ve given up all power in the fear of being primaried and targeted by Trump’s personal army.
No deal, they rolled over on that cast of unqualified and outrageous nut jobs on the cabinet. Fuck em.
+1
I remember the good ole days when we were adding up all the court rulings against Insurrectionist/Private Citizen Donald. The system was working and he would be flushed out of the system before the 2024 elections came around.
Same. Who's making them comply with these? They're already refusing to comply with several, starting with the very first one on the list.
And anything about the firings that says "well they were probably illegal" (they definitely were, there's no probably about it) - that doesn't magically un-fire them or undo the damage they did. I really wish Kevin and others would stop treating this "well it was probably illegal, OSC/Merit Protections Board sez so" as if that means they aren't just blowing up the administrative state.
Because they are. They're destroying the state because it was the only thing that could curb the power of oligarchs, who will otherwise operate unchecked in the 21st century capitalistic hellscape that they're putting more pieces in place for every day. It's infuriating that people are minimizing the impact of this.
+1
This is Trump pushing the boundaries. The one I find disturbing is the Whitehouse trying to force speech by forcing everyone to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. If they can get away with that what's next? Reality will be defined by a dunce with a comb over and spray on tan.
What's next? Forcing everyone to call stadiums and other edifices by names bought and paid for by corporations instead of their originally endowed names, that's what. Oh, wait...
I came across a website listing the court cases: https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/
A job for Kevin: how does this compare to other presidential administrations?
“But it's not clear if Trump is complying.”
Buried the lede there. If nobody knows if/whether Trump and his minions will comply, court rulings are almost worthless.
Also, glossing over all the firings and rehirings is pretty shitty of you, Kevin. The best and brightest aren’t going to want to work at a place where every week their work may be halted and every other week they might have to worry about their paycheck being the last. Eventually the Feds will be left hiring the students who barely got out of college (“D’s get degrees!”), leaving all of us much worse off in a modern world that depends on people knowing how stuff works to function.
The uncertainty around science funding has a similar impact. If you are a competitive grad student from another country who would otherwise be happy to come to the US for a postdoc (despite the move, the language/culture barriers, the relatively low salary, etc.), going forward you'll have severe second thoughts because apparently the US government can and will for no good reason and with no warning cancel your grant funding. So maybe you go someplace else . . .
As a result, the Tump administration is killing off US competitiveness in the sciences long-term.
"cancel your grant funding" ... and maybe even deport you. To the concentration camps at Guantanamo. Uncertain research funding is just the tip of the iceberg.
And in the slightly longer term, killing off US competitiveness in business and industry.
Yeah, I'm getting serious "oh you sweet summer child" vibes about this.
leaving all of us much worse off in a modern world that depends on people knowing how stuff works to function.
Vladimir Putin will be very pleased at this turn of events.
China is run by a dictator, but unlike our situation, he is a competent dictator who knows the value of education and training. They will run us into the ground.
But that's OK. We will still have 1001 cable channels and Netflix to watch on our Chinese-made TVs. We will be able to entertain ourselves to death.
"We will still have 1001 cable channels and Netflix to watch on our Chinese-made TVs. We will be able to entertain ourselves to death."
Sure, until Comedy Central purges The Daily Show and HBO cancels Last Week Tonight for "crimes against the state."
#6-the judge halted ICE raids just in the churches that filed the lawsuit. other churches are fair game. Trump etal are mostly ignoring court rulings or slow-walking them.
The state of Florida has started its own "DOGE" like project to fire a bunch of state workers. This is especially silly since the Republican party has had a lock on the governor's mansion and the legislature for over 20 years so I'm not sure why they can't go through the normal process of passing laws. But at the end of the day it's mostly about showing absolute fealty to the dear leader.
I am seriously waiting for them to change the name of the state to "Trump".
So has the uniparty Lone Star "republic" of Texas.
LoneStar is the review.
one of my favorite old texas jokes: "Texas flag is actually one-star review of Texas."
Firing government workers is going over extremely well with the “burn it all down base”. It also is an excuse to get rid of low hanging fruit.
Step 1 - implement some illegal policy or practice.
Step 2 - litigate any opposition to the policy or practice.
Step 3 - ignore adverse rulings relating to the policy or practice.
Step 4 - harass and punish those identified with the litigation.
Step 5 - implement some more illegal policy or practices.
Step 6 - everyone happily agrees with the formerly illegal policy or practice.
Mission accomplished