House Republicans passed Trump’s big, ugly, festering pile of shit early Thursday morning, and you may have heard all of the critical programs they want to cut, and the taxes they want to protect billionaires from having to pay.
But what you may not have heard about is a simple little provision that would retroactively protect Trump, and all of his loyalists throughout government, from ignoring some federal court orders protecting our constitutional rights.
This provision would make it illegal for federal judges to hold Trump officials in contempt of court for ignoring nationwide injunctions, in the case when an injunction bond was not issued.
An injunction bond is a payment to the government designed to protect someone who is getting sued from frivolous lawsuits. It is up to the judge to determine if a bond is necessary.
Now, you won’t be surprised to find out that in the critical injunctions that have so far protected us from some of Trump’s worst plans, including the illegal deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, injunction bonds were not issued.
Republicans know this. So now they want to exploit it.
As if their motive wasn’t already plain, they wrote the rule to apply retroactively to all injunctions in the past, effectively vindicating illegal behavior after the fact.
Of course, one would only look for such provisions in a budget bill if they’ve seen Republicans do this kind of shit before. Because policy changes, especially policy changes that could unravel constitutional rights, have no place in a budget bill.
But they’re doing it anyway, because the budget reconciliation process is their only path to approval in the Senate. This is because budget reconciliation bills only require a 51 votes in the Senate to pass, whereas any actual new legislation requires 60 votes.
Of course, Republicans cannot get to 60 votes without Democratic support.
And Democratic support is one thing this absolutely atrocious bill will never obtain.
Ultimately, it is extremely unlikely this provision will survive Senate revisions. And even if it does, courts may be able to strike it down, if it is ruled that it does not fit in a budget reconciliation vote.
But it should never have come to this. And yet, it always does, when Republicans are in charge.
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