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Commentary by Jeff Bayard
A Judiciary in Decline: Early Warning Signs
In any healthy constitutional republic, the balance of powers functions like the human immune system — recognizing threats, responding with integrity, and maintaining national stability. But when one branch overreaches or collapses into partisanship, the body politic suffers. America is now showing symptoms of what can only be described as a judicial disease: a pattern of federal court rulings that defy logic, compromise justice, and obstruct legitimate executive authority. The first 100 days of President Trump’s second administration have laid bare the scale of this problem.
Two April Rulings That Reveal the Trend
Consider just two rulings from April 30, 2025. A federal judge in Missouri ordered the release from federal custody of a suspect charged in the firebombing of a Tesla facility, a decision reported by Breitbart News. The judge disregarded the risk of flight and the danger to public safety despite evidence of the suspect’s political motives and violent actions. On the same day, a Florida federal judge blocked local law enforcement from enforcing Florida’s state-level immigration statute, as covered here. This undercut a duly enacted law signed by the governor, nullifying the will of Floridian voters through federal preemption.
Litigation Warfare: The Scope of Legal Resistance
These are not isolated anomalies. The website Just Security, hosted by NYU Law’s Reiss Center on Law and Security, has compiled a legal tracker titled “Litigation Tracker: Pending Criminal and Civil Cases Against Donald Trump”. While editorially left-leaning, it serves as a comprehensive index of legal efforts to restrain or nullify Trump administration policies, ranging from immigration to education, climate regulations, and law enforcement authority.
Legal scholars such as John Yoo and Robert Delahunty have warned that nationwide injunctions—a judicial tool increasingly used against Trump-era policy—lack constitutional grounding and “violate the separation of powers” (see: “The Atlantic, A Single Judge Shouldn’t Have This Kind of National Power” ). Judge James Ho of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has raised similar alarms, stating in both judicial opinions and public remarks that nationwide injunctions subvert judicial hierarchy by giving a single district court more authority than an appellate court ruling on the same issue (Fifth Circuit opinion – 2025; Volokh Conspiracy report).
When the Bench Becomes the Legislature
During President Trump’s first 100 days, similar rulings have obstructed:
- Executive orders on border enforcement (example: East Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Biden, previously used to block asylum restrictions in 2019).
- Energy deregulation efforts, citing overbroad environmental statutes.
- State parental rights laws, challenged in courts sympathetic to federal overreach.
- Criminal prosecutions, delayed by judges who question DOJ priorities or evidence standards.
This erosion of lawful authority reflects a deeper structural issue. When the judiciary imposes its will as a policy-making body—bypassing Article I legislators and overriding Article II executives—it is no longer interpreting the Constitution; it is rewriting it.
Moral Clarity in an Age of Judicial Confusion
The result is a form of judicial supremacy that undermines the original intent of the Framers. As Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 78, the judiciary was to be the “least dangerous” branch, holding “neither purse nor sword.” Today, it wields both — effectively nullifying acts of Congress, state legislatures, and the President through what some call “bench legislation.”
The moral dimension is also clear. As Scripture warns in Isaiah 5:20: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.” And again in Proverbs 28:5: “Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely.”
What Must Be Done Now
To counter this judicial disease, citizens must stay informed and engaged, governors must defend constitutional state sovereignty (see: Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – ), and Congress must consider legislation to limit abusive use of nationwide injunctions (see: “Nationwide Injunctions: Unlawful and Unwise” from Heritage Foundation – ).
There is still time. But we cannot ignore the warning signs. A judiciary that no longer submits to law — divine or constitutional — is not delivering justice. It is replacing it.
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