Thanks to 100-plus lawsuits filed to stop President Trump in just more than two months in office, district courts that are traditionally focused on matters within their defined areas have issued a whopping 15 injunctions against the Trump administration. That's more than were faced by Barack Obama and Joe Biden who had 12 and 14, respectively, during their entire presidencies, according to data from the Harvard Law Review via Matzav.com.
The numbers are staggering, says Steve Deace, a conservative show host and writer with Blaze Media.
“Trump's been president for 18% of the 21st century. He has already received nearly 70% of all federal injunctions against the presidency. Ninety-two percent of those injunctions were issued by Democrat-appointed justices,” Deace said on American Family Radio Thursday.
No help is coming from a slow-moving Congress with slim Republican majorities, Deace told show host Jenna Ellis. And while it's a battle Trump has to fight alone, Deace argues the President can win it if he leads in the manner of one of the greatest American presidents.
“Trump is going to have to be the Abraham Lincoln here. And just as Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation as a deterrent against the dreadful Dred Scott decision – probably the worst decision in Supreme Court history until Roe v. Wade – Trump is going to have to just defy the court. He's probably going to do it more than once,” Deace said.
It's possible, according to the conservative writer, that the threat of such bold action from Trump will be enough to win the favor of John Roberts, the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
As the Trump vs. James Boasberg case inches toward the Supreme Court, Roberts – described by Deace as a protector of America’s institutions – waits at the other end of the trail.
At issue is whether Trump defied Boasberg’s verbal order to return a plane filled with mostly alleged gang members – confirmed gang members, according to El Salvadoran government officials, NewsNation has reported – after the plane had, according to the Trump administration, entered international airspace.
How Roberts could vote
Boasberg’s order was in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and another leftist group, Democracy Forward. In the current makeup of the High Court, every vote matters – and Roberts (below, right) earlier tipped his hand in a response to Trump’s call for Boasberg to be impeached.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said in a statement.
Deace contends that Roberts, should the Supreme Court take up the Boasberg-Trump bout, would likely be inclined to side with Trump. And, he continued, a Supreme Court win for Trump would make the President less inclined to encourage Congress to use its Constitution-appropriated “checks” against the judiciary.
Among the executive branch’s checks are the ability to make future judge appointments. They do not allow the President to unilaterally remove a sitting judge.
“John Roberts views himself as the last man standing defending America's institutions. If you think you're the Biden administration that can use institutions to mass poison people to the point that they'll lose all of their trust in vaccines in the public health sector, he'll step in,” Deace said.
It’s all about America’s institutions, he argues. “I think at the very least, as the threat of this looms, I think you could actually see Roberts step in for fear that Trump would do this and therefore destroy the entire canard of Roberts' existence,” Deace said.
The other path for Trump is sheer defiance – and it’s not unprecedented. The Supreme Court struck down Joe Biden’s HEROES Act and did not give the executive authority to forgive billions in student loans. Biden pushed ahead through executive orders and various policies.
Whether a more historically popular president, Abraham Lincoln, defied the Supreme Court in its infamous Dred Scott decision, in which the Court ruled that African-Americans – free or enslaved – could not become U.S. citizens, is a matter of debate.
But Lincoln challenged the legal and moral foundations of the decision – and he made it a campaign talking point.
The path of defiance
So, in Deace's scenario, Trump should become Lincoln, with Lincoln’s bold leadership, and, perhaps, defiance of the nation’s highest court. And it should be done with stealth, not a press conference or a 3 a.m. Truth Social post, Deace said.
“I’d just do it. I’d do it repeatedly, and I’d let them respond.”
Then Democrats could run in the next elections on whether Americans wanted the judiciary’s interpretation of the Constitution, one that keeps alleged gang members tied to acts of extreme violence, inside America; or if voters might prefer Trump’s interpretation of the Constitution.
“That's how this was actually supposed to work. Ultimately, the people are sovereign. The people decide,” Deace said.
