GOP Tax Bill Would Curtail Power of Courts

[applegrove]

GOP Tax Bill Would Curtail Power of Courts

May 18, 2025 at 11:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 83 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2025/05/18/gop-tax-bill-would-curtail-power-of-courts/

“Tucked deep in the thousand-plus pages of the multitrillion-dollar budget bill making its way through the Republican-controlled U.S. House is a paragraph curtailing a court’s greatest tool for forcing the government to obey its rulings: the power to enforce contempt findings,” the AP reports.

“It’s unclear whether the bill can pass the House in its current form — it failed in a committee vote Friday — whether the U.S. Senate would preserve the contempt provision or whether courts would uphold it. But the fact that GOP lawmakers are including it shows how much those in power in the nation’s capital are thinking about the consequences of defying judges as the battle between the Trump administration and the courts escalates.”

[BootinUp]

1. That sounds unconstitutional. Nt

[Igel]

2. Why?

Remember, the lower courts are a creation of the US Congress--the Constitution authorizes Congress to establish the lower courts but otherwise says not so much about them.

[BootinUp]

3. Just my initial reaction.

But try this. If the purpose of the new provision by Congress is to protect law breakers then I doubt any court is going to side with them.