The lawsuits blocking Trump’s agenda, explained in 2 charts
President Donald Trump came into office with plans to enact his agenda at breakneck speed, and to some extent, it’s working. Less than 100 days into his second term, Trump has already issued 99 executive orders — a “shock and awe” approach meant to overwhelm his opposition and signal decisive action to his supporters.
However, the courts have emerged as a key obstacle slowing down the implementation of Trump’s policies. Advocates for the many people suffering from those policies — including immigrants, scientists, government workers, and the other everyday Americans who rely on them — are suing the administration and racking up key wins.
Nearly 140 lawsuits have challenged Trump’s executive actions so far, according to Just Security’s litigation tracker. Many of them have centered on the efforts spearheaded by Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” to slash staffing and spending across the federal government. But they have also focused on Trump’s attacks on undocumented immigrants and on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility policies in government and beyond.
So far, federal courts have already blocked, in part or in whole, many of Trump’s executive actions — at least for now. That includes his ban on transgender military servicemembers, his executive order ending birthright citizenship, his efforts to fire thousands of probationary government employees, his attempts to deport people under an obscure 18th-century law, and more. Some of those blocks could later be lifted or made permanent in ongoing litigation and appeals that could reach the Supreme Court.
It’s not clear to what extent the courts will be able to delay, if not entirely stop, some of Trump’s policies from going into effect.
Notably, blocks on some of Trump’s policies stayed in place through the end of his first term because courts ran out of time to resolve legal challenges to them. Trump’s proposals to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, create work requirements for Medicaid, and put a citizenship status question on the 2020 census never went into effect as a result. But in his second term, his administration has hit the ground running, allowing more time for lawsuits to play out and policies to take effect. He was also able to reshape the judiciary during his first term by appointing conservative judges who might favor his policies.
There is also a question of what this Supreme Court will do. As the ultimate interpreter of the law and the Constitution, the court will play a major role in checking — or abetting — Trump’s power grabs. (My colleague Ian Millhiser breaks down two cases in particular to follow.)
And then there is the concern that Trump will continue to ignore court orders. The US is arguably facing a constitutional crisis after the administration did not abide by a judge’s order to turn around planes transporting accused Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public rebuke of Trump after the president attacked the judge in the El Salvador case as a “Radical Left Lunatic.”
Trump and his administration are determined to expand the president’s power, even when that means disrupting the Constitution’s system of checks and balances or trampling civil liberties. With congressional Republicans complicit in that power grab, the courts have emerged as the Constitution’s most effective defense — at least for now.