Core Brief: H.R. 1 - Nothing To See Here. Just Another Step To Dictatorial Fascism
Trump’s court revolution — He's closer to controlling it all
Everyone is talking about the big beautiful bill, HR 1. Yes, it will increase deficits by $3.4 trillion, to $39.6 trillion, 123.8% of GDP. Yes, millions will lose medical care. Yes, the right to protest will be diminished, and law enforcement will be partially shielded from accountability. That’s all trivial to the bigger picture.
The “real” damage is to the courts. While it’s just another small step in the erosion of judicial power, it’s adding up.
Trump started removing the courts as a check to his power in 2016, setting the stage for his “trifecta” coup. He is the executive branch, and Congress is under his control; he just needs to get the courts in line. He’s so close.
What’s Happening
Trump’s court coup, as now codified in key sections of HR 1, has unfolded on eight fronts. Each has been incremental on its own, but together, they are changing the courts from a check on executive power to a political tool for the Trump-Republican regime to take control of the nation.
The numbers. In his first four years, Trump secured Senate confirmation of 234 lifetime Article III judges (Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, District Courts, and the Court of International Trade), three on the Supreme Court, and 54 on the appellate benches. This gave him a durable 6-3 conservative tilt with three of those six Trump loyalists.
The referees. Executive Order 13843 changed Administrative-Law Judges (federal officials who decide disputes with government agencies such as the Social Security Administration or the Environmental Protection Agency) from the merit-based civil-service system to allowing agency heads to appoint them. This changed the neutral in-house courts to political tools.
Speed over due process. Trump imposed a 700-cases-per-year quota for immigration judges. This was done to make it all but impossible to apply due process to each case. It tied the quota to employment, terminating those who do not meet the quota.
Swapping experts for loyalists. A revived “Schedule F” order (EO 14171) lets agencies reclassify tens of thousands of policy lawyers and analysts as at-will employees, clearing a path to fire career staff and install Trump-Republican regime loyalists.
Raising the price of dissent. Section 70302 of HR 1 bars judges from enforcing contempt orders against federal officials unless plaintiffs first post a bond, an extra cost designed specifically to make it too expensive to seek justice.
Narrowing the courtroom door. In Trump v. CASA (June 27, 2025), the Trump Supreme Court ruled that federal judges may no longer issue nationwide injunctions. Instead, courts can only grant relief to the specific plaintiffs before them. That means if a judge finds a law or executive order illegal, it can still be enforced against everyone else. Each individual or group must file their own separate lawsuit to challenge the same policy.
Testing the limits on “independent” agencies. Trump-appointed panels have already confirmed the removal of Democratic regulators at the Federal Labor Relations Authority, signaling a broader claim that presidents may fire independent commissioners at will, an argument now moving through the courts.
Discouraging challengers. Senate investigators found nine major law firms agreed to nearly $1 billion in free legal work for the administration after threats of retaliation. Trump is applying pressure that makes private litigation against the White House riskier and more costly.
Taken together, these moves do not abolish judicial review; they politicize it, tilting personnel, procedure, and incentives so that future challenges start further uphill and arrive before judges who, by design or by pressure, are predisposed to ignore the law and rule in favor of the Trump-Republican regime.
Why It Matters
The smaller, procedural changes, bond requirements, hiring rules, and firing powers, give the Trump-Republican regime ever-increasing control over the entire legal system. Each lawsuit now costs more, reaches fewer people, and lands before judges or ALJs whose jobs depend on ruling in favor of the Trump-Republican regime. The result is that judicial review becomes a rubber stamp supporting the Trump-Republican regime.
The Cultural Perspective
The Trump White House operates from a high power distance and particularist cultural lens. Authority comes from the leader and is absolute. Laws and rules are based on relationships and loyalty, not the rule of law. This drives a governance style that expects obedience, procedures to suit the moment, and rewards loyalty, and punishes dissent.
By contrast, the traditional U.S. legal system was grounded in low power distance and universalism. It assumes that no one is above the law, and it relies on neutral, consistent rules, such as lifetime judicial tenure, contempt powers, and nationwide relief, to act as a counterbalance to political authority.
Trump’s dictatorial and situational approach collides with a legal culture built for universal, institutional restraint. What results is growing pressure on the court system to serve not the public but to serve the Trump-Republican regime.
Trump is the extreme of Hornby’s Power-Seeker archetype: Ruthless, absolute in rule, brooking no dissent, and focused on self-aggrandizement, similar to Saddam Hussein, Stalin, Pol Pot, and Idi Amin.
More about Hornby’s archetypes here
What’s Next?
With nationwide injunctions eliminated, civil rights groups will now need to file dozens of coordinated lawsuits to challenge a single executive action, dramatically slowing the pace of legal relief and increasing costs. At the same time, independent agency boards will begin to self-censor or face firings or reorganizations. We can expect more decisions to align with the Trump-Republican regime and eventually become automatically Trump-Republican aligned.
Within the civil service, the reintroduction of Schedule F is likely to prompt an exodus of experienced career lawyers and analysts. As these professionals leave, agencies will replace long-term experts with short-term Trump-Republican loyalists.
New restraints and laws will make it impossible or illegal to challenge or litigate against the Trump-Republican regime. The Democratic Party will continue to lose power but remain as a show of democracy. All power will eventually rest with Trump, with his decrees rubber-stamped by the Trump-Republican Party, and upheld by the Trump courts.
Yes, the "It can't happen here" syndrome. The Germans said the same thing. Trump is the symptom, just as Hitler was. The timing and the circumstances set the stage for a Hilter in the US, it just happened to be Trump. I do believe it was inevitable, just as the next stage after Trump is inevitable.
It seems like I have been pointing all this out for years now- the hazards of falling into dictatorship….it seemed so obvious to many of us- yet people got tired of listening to those of us who were calling attention to all the signs. They preferred to pretend it really wasn’t happening. That it would all work out- that we were just chicken littles screaming the sky is falling. But nope. The dismantling of Congress was a given. The loss of the courts will be our downfall. Cheery times.