Democracies Die One Branch at a Time

Speaker Johnson just told the courts to get in line or get eliminated.

Wilfredo Lee / AP

He said it out loud. And he meant it.

On Tuesday, March 25, the Speaker of the House stood at a podium, took a question about a judge who blocked Trump’s deportation orders, and said the quiet part with his whole chest.

Here’s what he said: word for word:

We do have the authority over the federal courts, as you know. We can eliminate an entire district court. We have power of funding over the courts and all these other things. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act. So stay tuned for that.

Let that land. That’s not a misunderstanding. That’s not some out-of-context quote or hypothetical legal theory. This is our sitting Speaker of the House saying on the record—that Congress might dissolve entire federal courts if those courts don’t fall in line with Trump’s agenda.

If we’ve learned anything from Trump and his administration, it’s this: when they tell you what they’re going to do, believe them.

The Playbook doesn’t say “Democracy”—it says “Obey”

Project 2025 spells it out in black and white. The plan isn’t just to win power—it’s to gut anything that can say “no.” That means the civil service. That means the Department of Justice. And yes, it means our courts.

Each branch of the federal government—legislative, executive, and judicial—has an obligation to independently interpret the Constitution. The Supreme Court does not have a monopoly on constitutional interpretation. — Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership

At first glance, that might sound harmless. But what it’s really doing is laying the groundwork to ignore court rulings altogether. If every branch gets to decide for itself what’s constitutional, then the courts lose their authority to say when something crosses a line.

This plan doesn’t need to say the words “abolish the courts.” It just has to convince enough people that the courts don’t matter. Once that’s done, removing a judge—or an entire bench—starts to feel like a technical fix instead of a crisis.

And there’s the point. The authors of Project 2025 don’t want independent judges. They want compliant ones… jurists who understand their job is to greenlight Trumpism, not check it.

That’s how you make a ruling optional. You strip it of weight. You make it something a politician can nod at, then walk right through.

That right there is the exact context for Johnson’s threat.

So the question isn’t whether he meant it. The question is whether anyone will stop him before words turn into law…

The Constitution isn’t a weapon, but they’re aiming It anyway

The Constitution lets Congress create federal courts—and yes, it gives them the power to take them apart. That’s real. Article III makes that clear:

…in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.

But that power was never meant to be used as a weapon.

In 1911, Congress passed a law that shut down the old circuit courts and handed their responsibilities to the district courts. It wasn’t about punishing anyone. It was about cleaning up a system that wasn’t working. Even the Federal Judicial Center says the goal was to “bring order and coherence,” not to settle political scores or retaliate against a ruling.

This is the line Johnson just crossed.

He isn’t talking about outdated systems or administrative reforms. He’s pointing to a courtroom that made a legal decision and suggesting it doesn’t deserve to exist anymore. That’s not maintenance; that’s an ultimatum.

You don’t threaten to wipe out a court unless your goal is fear. You don’t talk like that unless you want other judges to think twice before ruling the way the law demands instead of the way power prefers.

This isn’t a misunderstanding of the Constitution. It’s an intentional misuse of it. A weaponization of a rule meant to serve the people, now aimed at the only branch still willing to say “no.”

This Was Never About One Ruling

What Johnson said wasn’t an outburst—it was a litmus test. Float the idea, gauge the reaction, and thensee how close they can get to killing the system before anyone can make a move.

The trigger was a federal court ruling that blocked Trump’s mass deportation order. Judge Boasberg didn’t just pause a policy, he challenged Trump and the legal authority behind it. Just like that, the court itself became the target.

That’s the line they’re crossing now. When the system rules against them, they go after the system. When the brakes work, they prepare to cut the lines.

This isn’t conjecture. It’s a live tactic. It didn’t begin with a courtroom, and it won’t end there. The agencies, the civil servants, the watchdogs… they’ve all been put on notice. Follow orders, or as Trump during his time as a reality TV star said, “You’re fired!”

The courts are just next in line.

And if we let this pass—if this threat is normalized—we won’t be wondering what happens when the system breaks. We’ll be standing in the wreckage.

You don’t save the tree by watching it fall

Speaker Johnson threatened the courts. We don’t need more proof.

We need to act.

If this moment passes without real pressure…. if it’s treated like a line that can be crossed without consequence… it won’t be the last one. It’ll just be the first one that worked.

That’s the urgency.

Talk to people. Show them what was said. Make sure they understand the difference between politics as usual and a direct attack on the balance of power.

Then act.

Call your reps. Ask them on record: do they believe Congress should be able to erase a courtroom for issuing a ruling they don’t like?

And on April 5, show up.

In Chicago, we’re gathering at Daley Plaza at noon. Every state will have protests. Find your local 50501, or ask us and we’ll help you plug in. Don’t wait for permission. This is the moment.

We can’t undo what’s been said or what they’ve done. But we decide what happens after.

Because like a tree, democracy falls one branch at a time, unless we stand before the axe.

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For those who don't know us yet, 50501 is a decentralized, national group of workers, veterans, students and immigrants and community members united against political repression and dedicated to peaceful resistance.

50501 stands for: 50 states, 50 protests, 1 movement.

We organize across America to peacefully protest against executive overreach, the unconstitutional actions of the current administration and Project 2025.

Join us and get loud.

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