Do the Courts Even Have Standing?

The question I posed in the title of this article is something for constitutional scholars to address or the United States Supreme Court to step in and gain control of the lower courts. For a layman, such as myself, it is troubling to see the legal system being abused in order to try to prevent the Trump administration from executing its legal responsibilities.

"Power is the great evil with which we are contending. We have divided power between three branches of government and erected checks and balances to prevent abuse of power. However, where is the check on the power of the judiciary? If we fail to check the power of the judiciary, I predict that we will eventually live under judicial tyranny." ~ Patrick Henry

As we all know, anyone can file a law suit against anybody for anything. I fully support the concept of citizen voters filing actions against the federal government for legitimate reasons. However, I question whether a rogue, activist judge has the authority enjoin the Executive Branch of government because of separations of powers. The only law enforcement agencies available to federal judges to enforce any injunction work for the Executive Branch, which is who they are trying to thwart.

During the Biden administration we saw that Democrats were perfectly comfortable with the Executive Branch ignoring federal court rulings, up to and including the United States Supreme Court. So far, the Trump administration has, in my mind, voluntarily complied with these activist lower court rulings. Another question for constitution scholars: Do the federal courts have the authority to halt Executive Branch activities pretrial based only on the complaint?

There is one action that a court has acted on that I have some familiarity with because of my 22 years in federal civil service. That is the release of federal employees who are in probationary status upon initial employment with the government. These people have no recourse, because it is a condition of employment. A new employee on probation can be released for any reason or no reason at all. Today people are being released because the government is downsizing.

In addition, career civil service employees when promoted often are in a probationary status. They too could fail the probationary period for any reason or no reason at all. However, these employees revert back to their previous employment status rather than being released from government service.

Often political appointees will try to switch into career civil service positions when an administration changes. They are then in a probationary period just like any new federal employee subject to release for any reason. This is how “holdovers” can be infused permanently in the federal government. One of Trump 45’s biggest problems was that he didn’t fire all the Obama holdovers on probation in 2021.

"To consider judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy." ~Thomas Jefferson

Federal court judges are a freewheeling lot. They range from conscientious constitution originalists framing every decision in accordance with the United States Constitution to the out of control activist ideologues that make decisions based on their political bias. America’s enemies seek out the latter to help poke sticks into the spokes of the wheels of our MAGA government. But there is an upside to this lawfare. It is easier to identify the federal judges that should be examined for potential Bills of Impeachment.

Now, back to my questions. Does the Judicial Branch of government have jurisdiction over the Executive Branch of government’s day to day constitutional operations? If so, where is it documented in the United States Constitution?

Maybe President Trump should follow precedent set by Joe Biden and get on with his constitutional business until these legal actions are resolved in the court proceeding, most of which will likely end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. Stopping the progress of fixing government doesn’t seem like a wise idea. Unlike Joe Biden, if the Supreme Court rules against an issue, then abide by that ruling.