With countless legal challenges to the Trump administration’s federal spending measures, legal experts say plaintiffs in these cases are trying to block President Donald Trump’s agenda as the courts probably navigate new territory.
“I think this is a continuation of the war we’ve seen during the Biden administration over the past four years,” Zack Smith, a senior law fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital.
“The only difference right now is that the agitators of the law are outside the government, and they are trying to use different advocacy groups, different interest groups to throw obstacles to Donald Trump’s actions.”
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The Trump administration has so far been the target of more than 90 lawsuits since the start of his second term, many of whom have challenged the president’s orders. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The Trump administration has so far been the target of more than 90 lawsuits since the start of his second term, many of whom have challenged the president’s orders.
Plaintiffs, from Blue State Attorney General to advocacy groups and interest groups, are particularly challenging Trump’s federal spending measures, including government efficiency (DOGE) efforts to reduce government spending by the administration and the Department of Government Efficiency, which seeks to halt federal funds for various programs.
Smith said he suspects these plaintiffs are attempting to “slow down” the Trump administration’s progress and agenda through these lawsuits “even if they suspect that they are their lawsuits and that they will not succeed in the end.”
John Yu of UC Berkeley Law told Fox News Digital that plaintiffs in spending cases show “political weakness” by asking for a judicial request rather than going to Congress.
“I think what you’re looking at is political weakness, because if they have popular support, they should go to Congress,” Yu said. “It’s a branch that the founders hoped to be responsible for containment or reaction to the overreaching expansion of presidential forces.”
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Despite public protests from conservatives who are “activist judges,” the judges blocking Trump’s federal spending actions, Yu said the judge is “confusing.”
“There’s a lot of confusion happening in the lower courts,” he said. “I think they misunderstand their proper role.”
Smith said that for the time being, many judges “through what their views are.” [are] “This is appropriate action by the government against administrative agencies that say, “this is not the proper role of a judge.”
Plaintiffs, from the Blue State Attorney General to advocacy groups and interest groups, are particularly challenging Trump’s federal spending measures. (Lee Green from Fox News Digital)
“Even so, seeing some of these judges issuing these toros, they are very aggressive and if it is actually the president and his adviser to make important decisions, they are hindering the functioning of the core enforcement department,” Smith said.
Smith added that he hopes the Supreme Court will “turn skeptical of some of these actions by these judges.”
Smith and Yu said they hope that these challenges will eventually reach the Supreme Court, and Smith said the High Court “have to face some questions that they’ve been trying to wear a skirt for a few years now.”
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“This has to go to the Supreme Court because you’re seeing confusion about the proper procedural methods to challenge a freeze on spending in lower courts,” Yu said.
On Wednesday, Secretary John Roberts suspended a federal judge’s order requiring the Trump administration to pay contractors about $2 billion in foreign aid funds by midnight. Smith called the move “actually pretty spectacular.”
Secretary John Roberts suspended a federal judge’s order Wednesday requiring the Trump administration to pay contractors about $2 billion in foreign aid funds by midnight. (Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)
“And I think a reasonable interpretation of it is like justice, especially the Supreme Court justice, sending a shot across the bow, saying, ‘Look, if we keep doing this, we’re going to intervene and intervene,'” Smith said.
Yu said he hopes the Trump administration will win many of the cases that have finally begun against him, saying, “In many ways, he is following the Roberts Court itself’s decision on how far executive power will go.”
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“Just because Trump won the election now doesn’t mean he does anything he wants, he has to achieve his mandate through the constitutional process.
“He’s filing a lawsuit, he’s showing up in the Supreme Court, so he’s not ignoring the court. He’s doing what you should be if you’re the president and you’re responsible for enforcing the law,” Yu continued.
Bradford Betz of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.
Haley Chi-Sing is a political writer for Fox News Digital. You can contact her at X at @haleychising.
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