I originally started this thread to articulate and verify a then-controversial argument about the American establishment's response to Trump's fascist agenda. Specifically I argued that sitting by quietly and relying on American courts to stop Downmarket Mussolini's dictatorial ambitions was not only cowardly, but would ultimately be wholly ineffective. This is because not only does the entire Trumpenreich regard the law as useful only when it can be used to prosecute a fascist agenda, but also because every enforcement agency that could potentially hold Trump accountable for violating court orders, ultimately works for the Swine Emperor himself. The Courts have no army or police force to compel a wayward nazi president to obey their rulings.
This was not a particularly popular opinion outside the antifascist radical left at the time, but I think the light of history has reflected well on my take. As it turns out, so does the Washington Post who recently published the results of an extensive investigation into every court order issued against the Trump administration, to find that the regime or its minions are violating over a *third* of all such orders in some way or another, and by a variety of clearly intentional methods.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/07/21/trump-court-orders-defy-noncompliance-marshals-judges/ (Archive: https://archive.ph/jJpnx)
Trump officials accused of defying 1 in 3 judges who ruled against him
"President Donald Trump and his appointees have been accused of flouting courts in a third of the more than 160 lawsuits against the administration in which a judge has issued a substantive ruling, a Washington Post analysis has found, suggesting widespread noncompliance with America’s legal system.
Plaintiffs say Justice Department lawyers and the agencies they represent are snubbing rulings, providing false information, failing to turn over evidence, quietly working around court orders and inventing pretexts to carry out actions that have been blocked."
This is a very granular study of 165 lawsuits against the Trump administration where courts have ruled against the regime's (often illegal) actions and the results of those court orders; WaPo found that in a staggering 57 of those cases, the US government had taken steps to subvert, ignore, or openly violate those court orders. This comes from a larger pool of 337 cases against the Trump regime brought to court, which means you've got about a fifty percent change of beating the fascists in court, and at best a two thirds chance of that actually meaning anything even if you do. Does that sound like a legal system capable of protecting Americans and their civil rights from a fascist administration to you? Yeah, me neither.
It is of course deeply ironic that this analysis is coming from The Washington Post; an outlet which by my reckoning has played a prominent role in pushing the idea that actively resisting the Trump regime in the streets is unacceptable lawlessness and it is far better to wait for court decisions that may be entirely meaningless to stop the fascist creep in our society. Even Jeff Bezo's pet media company however was willing to note that this alarming situation has grown out of an American judiciary unwilling, or perhaps unable, to hold the Trump administration to account for openly violating the law and the orders of our courts.
"Outside legal analysts say courts typically are slow to begin contempt proceedings for noncompliance, especially while their rulings are under appeal. Judges also are likely to be concerned, analysts say, that the U.S. Marshals Service — whose director is appointed by the president — might not serve subpoenas or take recalcitrant government officials into custody if ordered to by the courts."
I should note that the rest of this article focuses on diving into the myriad of ways the Trump administration has found to openly violate, undermine, or ignore court orders as a matter of foundational policy; efforts which expose the Trump regime's belief that the Swine Emperor has absolute power over immigration law, national security, federal funding, and the government workforce as a whole. This is a thorough investigation, that also clearly demonstrates that none of this is an accident and the Trump regime is usurping the power of the American judiciary entirely intentionally.
All of which leads me ask the Very Serious People TM in our society who insisted on allowing the Trump regime to openly do illegal fascism while waiting for the courts to swoop in and save the day, one simple question - what now? After all, we are now sitting in the same position we were when I told you months ago that only massive society-wide resistance would end Trump's fascism, and that expecting judges with no armies to stop him was a fool's errand; only now, even WaPo is admitting the courts know they can't stop him and Trump's agenda is a half year closer to becoming our reality. Dare you even answer?