Senate Republicans slashed language from the House version of President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" that would have given him the powers of a monarch who could simply bypass the courts if they tried to stop him from pursuing his policy ambitions, according to a report in HuffPost.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released his committee's changes to the judicial section late Thursday night. Notably absent was a "jarring, one-sentence provision that House Republicans buried in their 1,116-page bill," according to HuffPost.
The provision in question "would restrict the ability of any court, including the Supreme Court, to enforce compliance with its orders by holding people in contempt."
The one-sentence provision appears in Sec. 70302 "Restriction of Funds," and reads, "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..."
According to HuffPost, "Contempt citations are an essential tool for the courts" because "they allow judges to threaten fines, sanctions or even jail if people disobey their orders."
Without contempt citations, the courts could simply be ignored.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told HuffPost that the contempt provision Republicans slipped into the massive spending bill was "a naked attempt to shield members of the Trump administration from court orders," essentially allowing them to operate with impunity, much like royalty.
"Not only does this provision appear to violate the constitutional separation of powers, it also violates Senate rules," wrote reporter Jennifer Bendery. "Republicans are relying on a fast-track legislative process known as budget reconciliation to move the bill, which means everything in it must be related to budget matters. Restricting judges’ abilities to hand down contempt orders has nothing to do with budgets."
Read the HuffPost report right here.
