Democrats are sharing their secret weapon to combat President-elect Donald Trump’s second term: the courts.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer recently spoke with POLITICO Playbook, during which he signaled that, heading into Trump’s second term with little to no power, Democrats plan to go through the courts to fight back.
“I don’t know exactly what [Trump will] do. But I can tell you this: The judiciary will be one of our strongest—if not our strongest—barrier[s] against what he does,” Schumer said.
It’s a strategic shift that reflects the limitations and opportunities Democrats face as they try to safeguard constitutional rights and hold Trump’s second administration accountable. Schumer acknowledged that the courts—specifically federal courts, which President Joe Biden worked to reshape—are poised to be a key battleground in the next phase for both the Democratic Party and the American people.
Democrats’ national strategy comes as attorneys general across the country prepare to use the courts in their states, threatening lawsuits as a shield if and when Trump breaks the law—similar to what they did during his first administration.
But Democrats aren’t the only ones who have used the courts to their advantage. One of Trump’s legacies from his first administration is the appointment of three young conservative Supreme Court justices who will be able to stay on the bench for a long time.
“We like people in their thirties, so they’re there for 50 years or 40 years,” Trump said at a rally for the National Rifle Association in May.
In response, Biden appointed a significant number of young and Black judges to federal benches, and he recently surpassed Trump in the number of appointments during his presidency. This was no accident; it was a plan he and Schumer reportedly made four years ago at the start of his term.
“When we started out, we knew it would be a very difficult job to do more than Trump had done,” Schumer said. “But we did: We got 235—more than a quarter of the federal judiciary was appointed by our Senate and by the president.”
Biden flexed this muscle on Monday when he vetoed the JUDGES Act, which would have given Trump the ability to appoint two dozen judges.
And who did they get the idea from?
“The GOP,” Schumer said, citing how Republicans came up with “a strategy in the George W. Bush [years]. ‘We’ve got to control the bench,’ and they made every effort to do it. When I became majority leader, I said, ‘This is something we have to work on.’”
While using the courts to thwart Trump might seem like a defensive move rather than offensive, it’s also part of the long game. Schumer and Biden are banking on these judicial appointments outlasting any individual administration, serving as legal armor against Trump's existential threat to democracy.
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