GOP Senate Version of the Big Beautiful Bill Includes an Ugly Attack on Courts’ Ability to Protect Constitutional Rights
A provision inserted into the Senate GOP version of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” would, if enacted, pose a serious threat to federal courts’ ability to protect your constitutional rights. It does so by requiring litigants seeking a preliminary injunction against a federal government policy to post potentially enormous bonds.
Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick – who is also an experienced public interest litigator, having served as Director of Litigation at the libertarian Institute for Justice and VP for Litigation at the Goldwater Institute – has an excellent article outlining the danger this provision poses:
[The Senate bill] targets temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions. These are rulings that demand that the government halt the enforcement or implementation of a policy immediately, pending the final outcome of the case, if the judge concludes that it is likely the plaintiffs will prevail against the government in the end.
Just imagine, for instance, that during Covid, courts could not stop executive orders closing down houses of worship unless millions of dollars were posted in bonds. Or an executive order confiscating guns. The basic idea of a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction is to prevent the damage to the rights and well-being of citizens from the government carrying out an action or policy that is likely to be found illegal or unconstitutional.
The new Senate version turns that logic on its head, instead seeking to protect the government from any costs that might be incurred from citizens asserting their rights.
This new version no longer tries to tak
Article from Reason.com
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