Reality Is A Harsh Mistress

 Congress can broadly establish the jurisdiction of Art. III courts. Which is not to say Congress can arbitrarily limit the equitable powers and inherent power to enforce rulings of Article III courts. Separation of powers works both ways.

Tucked deep in the thousand-plus pages of the multitrillion-dollar budget bill making its way through the Republican-controlled U.S. House is a paragraph curtailing a court’s greatest tool for forcing the government to obey its rulings: the power to enforce contempt findings.

It’s unclear whether the bill can pass the House in its current form — it failed in a committee vote Friday — whether the U.S. Senate would preserve the contempt provision or whether courts would uphold it.

 I’d give odds even Thomas and Alito would strike it.

I’m not a constitutional or federal law expert, but I can come up with a few legal theories off the top of my head for striking such an overreach from the law. In the end, all the Supremes have to do is strike it down, with reasoning most of the lower courts would be comfortable with. It’s not like the ruling would be the subject to a plebiscite. Dobbs wasn’t, but it’s still law of the land. Though I would hope for a more well reasoned opinion than that. All the Supremes really have to do is give the lower courts enough cover to feel comfortable about following the ruling.

This is just more of the little dogs yap-yapping because they think Trump is the leader of the pack. Reality is gonna mess them up something fierce.

While skirmishes over whether the federal government is complying with court orders are not unusual, it's the intensity of the Trump administration's pushback that is, legal experts say.

“It seems to me they are walking as close to the line as they can, and even stepping over it, in an effort to see how much they can get away with,” said Steve Vladeck, a Georgetown law professor. “It’s what you would expect from a very clever and mischievous child.”

Well, mischievous, anyway. But here’s the thing about mischievous kids: people get tired of  ‘em real quick.

Especially courts.