Senate parliamentarian rejects GOP's attempt to limit courts' contempt powers

The Senate parliamentarian has ruled against a controversial provision in the Senate Republicans’ megabill that would have made it significantly more difficult for courts to enforce contempt findings against the Trump administration.

The parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, ruled that limiting courts’ ability to hold Trump officials in contempt violated the Senate’s rules governing what can be passed with a simple-majority vote on the budget reconciliation fast track.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) hailed the parliamentarian’s decision as a major victory.

“Senate Republicans tried to write Donald Trump’s contempt for the courts into law — gutting judicial enforcement, defying the Constitution and bulldozing the very rule of law that forms our democracy,” Schumer said in a statement responding to the development.

“But Senate Democrats stopped them cold. We successfully fought for rule of law and struck out this reckless and downright un-American provision,” he said.

The provision, tucked into the thousand-page bill House Republicans passed in May, would have required anyone suing the federal government to pay a bond before a court would be allowed to use its contempt power to enforce injunctions and other rulings.

Courts have already ruled more than 190 times against the Trump administration since January.

The controversial language received little notice when it came to the floor, and Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) later caused an uproar at a town hall meeting when he admitted he didn’t know the provision was in the legislation when he voted for it.

“If enacted, this would have been one of the most brazen power grabs we’ve seen in American history — an attempt to let a future President Trump ignore court orders with impunity, putting him above the law,” Schumer said Sunday afternoon.

“Donald Trump is not above the law. And thanks to Senate Democrats — including the tireless work of Senator Durbin and the Judiciary Democrats — the courts can still hold him and any president accountable,” Schumer said, referring to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).