Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is raising the possibility of shutting down federal courts giving President Donald Trump trouble.
“We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know,” he said earlier this week, referring to Congress.
“We can eliminate an entire district court. We have power of funding over the courts and all these other things,” Johnson told reporters. “Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act,” he added.
He hedged a bit later, saying that he was referring to the “broad authority” of Congress over the “creation, maintenance and the governance” of the courts, rather than specific courts.
Article III of the Constitution established the Supreme Court, but also granted Congress the power to “ordain and establish” lower federal courts, and Congress has shut down a handful of courts in the past.
The Louisiana Republican huddled privately with House Judiciary Committee members on Tuesday for what was described as a “brainstorming” session on how to take on “activist” judges who declare many of Trump’s moves illegal.
Trump has so far lost an overwhelming cascade of court rulings, blocking his Department of Government Accountability from firing tens of thousands of federal workers, stopping DOGE’s federal agency funding freezes, and blocking the president from deporting immigrants under the wartime Alien Enemies Act when there is no war.
Trump has called for the judge in the deportation case, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, to be impeached because he doesn’t like his ruling.
In a rare rebuke, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts called such a move inappropriate, and said it would fly in the face of more than two centuries of American history.
A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday threw out Trump’s attempt to overturn Boasberg’s ruling.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has also been threatening the courts, and plans to hold a hearing focused on Boasberg and district judges next week.
The Ohio Republican has said he’s speaking with other Republicans about what he called “legislative remedies” concerning the judiciary.
“We got money, spending, the appropriations process to help try to address some of this,” Jordan said, though didn’t provide further details.
The House next week is voting on a bill by California Republican Representative Darrell Issa, which aims to limit district court judges’s ability to issue nationwide injunctions.
Johnson called such a move a “dramatic improvement” to the federal court system.
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