Almost every time the convicted felon and twice-impeached psychopath who inhabits the White House, President Donald Trump, pushes the boundaries of the law and the Constitution – which happens frequently – he loses. According to Democracy Docket, Trump is “getting crushed in the lower courts,” having “lost a shocking 96% of rulings in federal district courts” in May 2025 alone. 
Even more significantly, the judges issuing the rulings do not come only from those appointed by Democratic Presidents over the years: Trump has “lost in 72% of rulings issued by Republican-appointed judges.”
The laws these courts, judges and juries maintain he has broken or tried to break run the gamut – challenging birthright citizenship (14th Amendment), illegally invoking the Alien Enemies Act, mass firings of federal employees, decimating longstanding agencies created by Congress that have helped millions for decades, and erosion of voting rights. One may wonder why someone with so much power, who puts such a high premium on winning, would continue taking very visible actions that he and his advisors know will be challenged in court. As Democracy Docket notes, this is because of Trump’s ultimate goals: “He’s trying to execute the largest expansion of executive power in modern U.S. history, seeking to not only solidify control over the executive branch but purloin power from the other branches as well. 
He’s also undermining the fundamental freedoms and foundational legal principles, like due process and habeas corpus.”
In the States, Trump has also been losing.
These actions by Trump et al, as many of us have known and warned about for decades, show once again that Trump is trying to become the kind of ruler he admires but which does not comport with the American idea of a president: Vladimir Putin of Russia, a former KGB operative and dictator; Kim Jong Un, the current Supreme Leader of the misnamed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), obviously a dictator; and Viktor Orban of Hungary, who originally came to power quite legitimately but who is bringing his country to ruin. (As a member of the European Union, the situation in Hungary is especially alarming. The EU is trying valiantly to curtail Orban’s dictatorial impulses.)
Trump wants as much power and control as he can possibly get. In short, we must be prepared for Trump to try every trick in the book, legal or illegal, to ensure that the “evil” Democrats never again take power in our country, at any level of government. 
Things cannot get much more dangerous for the United States if we do not fight back with everything we have in our playbook.
Elections have consequences
One of the lessons we can take from Trump’s actions, the legal pushback against them, and Trump’s defiance in the face of judicial losses is the well-worn phrase, “elections have consequences.”
Trump won the presidency in 2016 (through our unfortunate requirement to use the Electoral College), which allowed him to appoint 234 judges throughout the country in his first term. Interestingly, many of these judges have ruled against him in many of the cases brought against him in both of his terms. 
Even more jarring, of course, is that (along with Sen. Mitch McConnell who did not allow President Obama to appoint a Supreme Court justice in 2016), Trump was able to appoint three SCOTUS justices who have, for the most part, ruled in his favor since consolidating a 6-3 right-wing majority in late 2020.
Trump lost the presidency to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the 2020 election. Trump then used the next four years convincing millions of Americans of the Big Lie that he (Trump) actually won. The 2020 election consequences are many, including Biden’s ability to appoint a record-breaking number of federal judges, 235. (The Biden-Harris Administration did enormous things to benefit Americans, but those successes and advantages are being undone by the Trump Administration.
In 2024, Trump won the presidency again, even the popular vote, despite months of warnings by many of us about his ambitions, lack of a conscience and total disregard for the Constitution. Now we are witnessing the consequences of this election. From a judicial perspective, we see that the elections of both Democratic and Republican presidents in the past have led to Trump losses – but the appointment of the three SCOTUS justices in Trump 1.0 overrule their fellow judges in nearly all courts.
Lawyers speaking out
The legal profession has been very active in the past eight months protesting Trump’s many illegal and anti-democratic actions in a number of ways. Speaking out by itself does not change laws (or succeed in punishing Trump), but op-eds, interviews, statements and so on do have other very important functions:
- They educate the public about the issues and how out-of-bounds Trump’s actions are.
- They show that dozens, hundreds or even thousands of Americans trained in the law – who take an oath to the Constitution and who are beholden themselves to the law – are in the Democracy Coalition.
- They put pressure on Trump to back down, which does work in some situations. (Recall the acronym that was coined a few months ago, TACO: “Trump Always Chickens Out.”)
- They serve as data and evidence for the record as to what is going on.
Recent examples of members of the legal profession speaking out include:
- In February 2025, more than 1,000 law scholars from around the country signed on to a bipartisan letter decrying “Trump’s slew of illegal executive orders and actions.” The signers stated their belief that we are in a constitutional crisis.
- Esteemed conservative retired Judge, Michael J. Luttig, who served for 15 years on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote “The End of Rule of Law in America” for the Atlantic (May 2025). In the article, Luttig systematically deconstructed “how the Trump administration has attempted to end the rule of law.”
- Luttig also spoke out strenuously to support Colorado’s attempt to keep Trump off the 2024 ballot because of the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists. When SCOTUS ruled against Colorado, Luttig called it “stunning in its overreach.”
- Recently, NBC News conducted rare confidential interviews with 12 “federal judges — appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents, including Trump, and serving around the country” who warned about several troubling trends: lower court judges who “painstakingly research the law to reach their rulings,” go against Trump, only to be harshly criticized publicly by Trump allies. The government then appeals (in emergency rulings, which used to be relatively rare) to SCOTUS, and SCOTUS then quickly “rejects the judges’ decisions with little to no explanation.” The American public needs to know that this is taking place.
The warriors
With the Republican party almost totally beholden to Trump, Stephen Miller, Mike Johnson, JD Vance, Laura Loomer, and others on the far right, and with the Democrats in the minority in Congress, it has fallen to the courts and states to push back against the dangerous authoritarian impulses we see every day. 
We Americans who applaud the pushback – and are taking actions ourselves on many fronts to do the same – owe the courageous law firms and their employees immense gratitude.
Earlier, we noted several individuals and organizations that were ready to help victims of Trump’s illegal crusades. These and other groups have been filing lawsuits and amicus briefs against Trump actions constantly since January. The American people should be extremely grateful to these tireless warriors for justice, truth and the rule of law.
Finally we cannot forget the juries that have served faithfully in a number of cases involving Trump. These average Americans have had to become much more courageous in the Trump era; serving on a jury is a foundation of our legal system but has now become dangerous and risky. Trump’s supporters, bolstered by his rhetoric, have targeted their fellow Americans in several instances: grand jurors in the Fulton County, Georgia, indictment against Trump had their personal or private identifying information published online without their consent, and were then menaced; following the 34 felony counts against Trump in May 2024 in New York, threatening comments against jurors, prosecutors and the judge appeared on far-right websites; 
after Trump’s social media post in June 2024 that included former President Barack Obama’s home address, one of the January 6 rioters reposted the address then showed up in person; special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw Trump’s federal election interference case in DC, “was the target of an attempted swatting on Christmas Day;”and the mother of Michael Fannone, the former police officer who was nearly killed on January 6 by Trump supporters, was swatted. This is not only very frightening: it is totally unacceptable in a democratic republic.
The gist of this
Between juries, prosecutors, judges and dozens of legal experts throughout the country, there is overwhelming support for the rule of law, common sense, a concern for the common good, and abiding respect for the Constitution. Those of us in the Democracy Coalition can take heart from this.
The recent erosion of what has made our country great (despite its flaws, which we acknowledge) lie in several glaring areas:
- Trump himself, with all his wealth, power and pathological rhetoric and impulses.
- SCOTUS Justices who seem intent on ruling in Trump’s favor despite all the wisdom that the other courts send to them for consideration. Shame on them, and shame on Chief Justice Roberts for allowing this to take place.
- The anti-democratic Electoral College. Again, we call on Congress to find a way to abolish or improve it. All other advanced democracies elect their top leader by popular vote, and we should, too.
- The total subservience of Republicans in Congress to Trump who helped create this mess by, among other things, defying all the collective legal wisdom that should have stopped the crisis long ago.
- Social media users and companies that allow grotesque disinformation to flood cyberspace with dangerous lies. Many of them know better and should be ashamed, and Congress and other government bodies should find ways to curtail this abuse of power (as the EU has done to some extent).
Because elections have consequences, we know what we must do: elect candidates that have character and who are pro-Constitution, pro-democracy, and pro-rule of law.