A provision “hidden” in the sweeping budget bill that passed the U.S. House on Thursday seeks to limit the ability of courts—including the U.S. Supreme Court—from enforcing their orders.

“No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction or order was issued,” the provision in the bill, which is more than 1,000 pages long, says.

The provision “would make most existing injunctions—in antitrust cases, police reform cases, school desegregation cases, and others—unenforceable,” Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, told Newsweek. “It serves no purpose but to weaken the power of the federal courts.”

  • danc4498@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    It’d be a shame if the Supreme Court found the whole bill unconstitutional cause of this one line and they wasted their one chance to pass a bill.

    • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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      15 hours ago

      Literally their constitutionally mandated job, though at least the two usual suspects say otherwise and would dissent.

    • MolecularCactus1324@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      There is a concept of severability, which has precedent. They would not call the whole bill unconstitutional, just the infringing part.

      • jonne@infosec.pub
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        13 hours ago

        Nah, it’s the perfect position, be able look like you’re pushing back while complaining you don’t have the power to do it. A certain political party perfected that tactic.

      • masterofn001@lemmy.ca
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        9 hours ago

        Every citizen who relies on or expects the supreme court to do their job, because without it, well, no one will ever have standing for anything.