I don’t know whether to characterize it as going into overdrive or downshifting, but lefty lawfare (is there any other kind?) has moved from attempts to destroy Trump personally, to trying to emasculate his executive powers. Please decide for yourself which direction they’ve shifted. In either case, the torque remains high.
Since forever as we all know, the left had got from the judiciary that which they could never win from elected representatives. Decisions, by and large, have been a one-way ratchet - to the left. Federal mandates that cities abandon their “sanctuary” actions - have been declared “un-Constitutional” in a decision a few days ago by an Obama San Francisco district court judge. Trump’s attempt to withdraw federal funding of “sanctuary cities” constitutes “coercion”. Until now, such coercion has been just fine. big shrug. Business as usual. As long as it was in the lefty direction, it was just “normal”.
Otherwise put, when it comes to funding “sanctuary cities”, says the judge, withholding funding from them for in effect, seceding from the federal system - withholding funding is “un-Constitutional” because “coercive”. We’ll see.
Funny there have never been cadres of “far-right” lawyers in the wings waiting to seek TRO’s against the hundreds of lefty administrative actions and orders which have all but eroded away the very foundations of most every aspect of the Constitution and and have thoroughly unbalanced the federalist system. Only the left is permitted to do that.
Why is it that here is never any shortage of well-funded lawyers just salivating to challenge every executive order of Trump’s. They also know, in advance, in which carefully-shopped forum to hawk their wares. Have they lost anything at the district court level?
I should also highlight a little-known fact. Again forever, consent decrees from administrative courts (a cancer which has literally eaten the legislative branch - having arisen in the executive!) have all but ruled the land, surreptitiously, for many years. There, we see the deep state pulleys and levers in action. “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”. Whenever legislation is enacted, the executive must promulgate rules to put it into effect.
There, forever, activists have sued executive agencies (usually sub-rosa, with either silent or supportive of the plaintiffs MSM) to demand they conform to leftist interpretation. To the extent it is known at all, the most egregious examples are enactment of “environmental regulation”. How else could the discharge of a downspout from your roof convert your lot into a “wetland”
The purported “adversaries” in such administrative courts are also activists (sub-rosa, again) - employees of the very federal agency “opposing” the outside activist demands. The employees “opposing” the outside activists are actually the backbone of the deep state. The result of administrative courts, so-called “consent decrees” (both sides agree!) setting forth the regulatory rules, unsurprisingly then, much more resemble leftist wish lists than what the legislation actually intended.
This has been the mechanism of a constant erosion of actual majority rule, of real democracy. It is what the left and MSM (redundant, I know) really mean by “Our Democracy™”. It has zero to do with majority rule or legislative intent, by any stretch. The critical role of the MSM is stunningly clear in that they are still getting away with such lies - like determining abortion rights by legislatures at the state level is somehow “anti-democratic”! What a shocking notion that is; it’s the death of “our Democracy™”.
Next time some self-righteous, arrogant lefty tells you the “deep state” is a right-wing fantasy, remind them of how the administrative state has gotten away with all but completely short-circuiting the normal legislative and executive process in this way. They still won’t admit it, of course, as they’re obliged to double down on every lie, but they’ll know that you know and they’ll know that Trump knows and is finally fighting back! If there’s any hope, there it is.