Trump’s enemies don’t campaign — they legislate from the bench

You’re watching nothing less than a judicial coup take place against Donald Trump’s administration and, by extension, the voters who supported him. To suppress a populist movement like those that won at the ballot box in 2016 and 2024, political operatives rely on institutions not directly accountable to the people.

During Trump’s first term, unelected intelligence officials, long-serving bureaucrats, and nanny-staters with decades-old security clearances became conduits for leaks between the special counsel’s office and the media.

Trump’s presidency is once again on the line. And here we are, stuck on the same ride. Anyone ready to get off?

When Attorney General Bill Barr moved to shut down the Russia collusion hoax, a new group stepped in. Unelected public health “experts” took the lead in shoving COVID-19 down our throats as the kept media amplified their every word.

Caving to that narrative ultimately led to Trump’s defeat in 2020. Now, another wave of unelected bureaucrats appear to be working to derail his triumphant second term — this time using a familiar line from the left: “The courts have spoken.”

For years, Republican leaders have largely accepted such proclamations without pushback. One example of this passive approach is the removal of prayer from public schools — a significant moment in the broader trend. But how did that happen?

It wasn’t the result of a policy from the Department of Education, which didn’t exist for another two decades. Instead, the shift began with the Supreme Court’s 1962 decision in Engel v. Vitale. The ruling applied what later became known as the Lemon test, which broadly interpreted the establishment clause of the First Amendment. According to the spirit of the age, that meant nearly any expression of religion not rooted in secularism faced constitutional challenges.

No American generation before ours would have signed off on these rulings at the ballot box. But once the courts handed them down, the public was expected to fall in line. In 1973, the Supreme Court delivered Roe v. Wade, effectively legalizing abortion nationwide — without a single vote cast by the people. It was a sweeping mandate, imposed from the bench.

In 1982, the court went farther. In Plyler v. Doe, justices declared that states must use taxpayer money to fund public education for children of illegal immigrants. Again, no vote, no debate — just a ruling.

Then came 2005. In Kelo v. New London, the court ruled that the government could seize private homes and farms, not for public roads or schools, but to hand over to private developers in the name of “economic development.” Would voters have approved that kind of land-grab? Of course not. That’s why the court stepped in and did it for them.

For decades, the courts laid the groundwork. Then came the breaking point: same-sex marriage. In United States v. Windsor (2013) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the Supreme Court overruled the will of tens of millions of voters. I was involved in those battles before Windsor — and I remember them clearly. We won 31 consecutive state referendums defining marriage as between a man and a woman. In California alone, over 8 million voters backed biblical marriage — on the same day Barack Obama won 60% of the statewide vote.

But the courts didn’t care. They stepped in and handed Democrats legal victories they could never have achieved through Congress or at the ballot box. Again and again, the judiciary gave Democratic causes the stamp of legitimacy, even as public support wavered.

If Democrats had been forced to legislate these changes, they would have paid the price. In fact, they did. After ramming through Obamacare, Democrats lost more than 1,000 federal, state, and local elections over the next three cycles.

Remember, the GOP controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House after the 2016 election — yet Obamacare survived untouched. Why? Because some on the political right prefer having issues to campaign on rather than solving them. It’s easier to grift off outrage than to govern with principle.

Which brings us to today: Trump’s presidency is once again on the line. And here we are, stuck on the same ride. Anyone ready to get off?

With a feckless, do-nothing Congress, real change will only come from Trump and his administration. Like it or not, he’s become our Abraham Lincoln — whether or not you want to see him on Mount Rushmore. And just as Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Trump may need to deliver his own version to free the public from the judicial class that continues to rule without consent.

Venezuelan drug lords have more of a right to step on the soil of America than an unborn baby right now. We cannot sustain a civilization like that, nor do we deserve to.