WASHINGTON — Recent Supreme Court victories have renewed many Democratic officials’ faith in the nation’s Trump-stacked justices ahead of this year’s midterm elections — but justices are still feared as Trump's wild card.
“I do trust the courts,” seven-term Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) told Raw Story as she entered the Capitol this fall. “You know, we’re really getting prepared for all kinds of scenarios. We’ll be prepared.”
Rosy reactions like that from senior Democrats to an utterly unprecedented scenario have onlookers worried.
While Democrats are smiling, President Donald Trump is weighing his options. His more MAGA-tinged advisors have been privately counseling him to declare a national emergency ahead of Election Day, as first reported by the Washington Post back in February.
In a recent interview with Time, Trump left the door open to triggering the Insurrection Act of 1807, which would empower the commander-in-chief to deploy the military on American streets.
Whether it’s speculation over a national emergency declaration or gaming out Trump’s plan to send upwards of 1,000 Justice Department officials to polling stations, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) — a former constitutional law professor — says there’s one undeniable trend: Basically, everyone’s expecting a Trump-sized tantrum.
“It's just amazing the way that the whole country is conditioned to think, ‘what is he going to do next to try to corrupt and steal the election?’” Raskin lamented. “It's just very sad that we know him that well that everybody is expecting the same thing.”
While the American public has been conditioned to Trump’s nefarious instincts, the nation’s judges inhabit sacred legal bubbles that are sometimes detached from the real world.
Despite all the warning signs — including cozy relationships his critics fear Trump maintains with an unknown number of the 250+ federal judges he got confirmed across his two terms — Democratic leaders say they’re ready for whatever Trump throws at them.
“Are you feeling prepared?” Raw Story asked the Chair of the House Democratic Caucus this fall. “Like, if Trump declares a national emergency the week ahead of the election, do you think you guys are ready?”
“We’ve got to be prepared for every scenario,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) told Raw Story. “But, I mean, the guy's been dealt defeat after defeat when it comes to election integrity. So it wouldn't surprise me.”
But other senior Democrats are shrugging off doomsday scenarios involving national emergency declarations and large troop deployments.
“What happens if Trump declares a national emergency,” Raw Story asked a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, “and, say, orders the National Guard to polling places?”
“Nothing, nothing, nothing will happen, because he has no power to do that,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) told Raw Story. “There's literally nothing in the Constitution that allows him to do that with regard to voting. The president literally has no role.
"If you look at the Constitution, it's the states. Unless Congress passes a law on a, you know, specific voting issue. But the president has no role.”
Still, Lieu isn’t expecting smooth sailing ahead.
Like many House lawmakers, Lieu was trapped on the House floor during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, so the Georgetown-educated lawyer started drafting articles of impeachment against Trump.
“Now, it's very clear to me that Trump is going to try to suppress people's votes,” Lieu said. “They have been doing that. They're going to try other tactics.”
“He incited a violent insurrection against us.”
If Democrats win back the House this November, Raskin’s slated to take over as chair of the powerful House Judiciary Committee.
The panel’s overflowing with lawyers trained at some of America’s top law schools, which is why the Judiciary Committee earned the nickname, “lawyer for the House of Representatives” — because the buck, usually, stops with them.
“Well, you know, we have shut them down on their plot to take over the election through the Post Office,” Raskin said. “We both have our own lawyers and there are also lots of lawyers throughout civil society who are prepared, as much as possible, for every eventuality.”
Raskin served on the Jan. 6 Select Committee whose final report blamed Trump for the deadly, if failed, 2021 insurrection.
While other Democrats are all but dancing in the wake of recent judicial victories, Raskin says that’s not a luxury available to his committee.
“We don't discount or undermine what Donald Trump is capable of. We saw in 2020 a dozen different plans that they had to try to thwart democratic sovereignty in the election,” Raskin recounted. “He called up the secretary of state of Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, and said, ‘just find me 11,780 votes,’ so they tried to alter the actual popular vote totals in a bunch of states.
“Then they tried to manufacture counterfeit Electoral College slates from the states. Then they tried to coerce the vice president, Mike Pence, into simply dismissing and rejecting Electoral College votes from the states, which he had no power to do.”
That was just Trump getting started.
“Then he incited a violent insurrection against us,” Raskin continued. “So, yeah, we are very well aware that all they have is a bag of dirty tricks at this point. And all we can say is that we understand that eternal vigilance is the price of democratic freedom.”
Like Trump, freedom isn’t on the ballot this year — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t at stake.
"I do fear that he will get more desperate.”
A national emergency declaration ahead of the election would test America’s Constitution in unprecedented ways. The last time that happened, arguably, was Bush v. Gore in 2000.
The Supreme Court stepped in and stopped Florida’s recount, which, essentially, handed George W. Bush the keys to the White House.
The 5-4 ruling by a more evenly divided court than we have today still makes liberals bristle. Even so, many Democrats say they trust the current conservative Supreme Court heading into this year’s midterms.
“What happens if Trump declares a national emergency?” Raw Story asked.
“We still have the states' vote and still win, and he triggers a constitutional crisis,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told Raw Story. “But I think even this [Supreme] Court will rule against him.”
“Is that kind of because of this mail-in ballot ruling?” Raw Story inquired. “Does that make you feel better?”
“They see the poll numbers,” Khanna said of the nation’s judiciary. “The poll numbers aren't the courts’ concern, but they know Trump's days are limited.”
But other Democrats lost all faith in the Roberts Court after the conservative supermajority overturned Roe v. Wade.
That’s why many of Trump’s congressional critics aren’t putting much stock in their party’s recent legal wins, in part, because the Supreme Court didn’t reject Trump’s mail-in voting argument; they merely said there wasn’t enough time to train postal workers.
"To maintain any integrity, it's the only decision that they could reach,” Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) told Raw Story. “The irony is, for most of our lifetime, it was Republicans who were better at voting by mail than Democrats, and they were better at early voting."
Boyle says it’s also important to remember Trump isn’t a rational actor.
"I do fear that he will get more desperate as he sees the way the polls are going," Boyle said before playing devil’s advocate with himself.
"On the other hand, ultimately, he only cares about himself, so if he's resigned to his party being defeated, maybe he just won't care as much as we think,” Boyle said. “He kind of suggested that. Remember when he was being asked about whether or not he was going to campaign for people, and he said, ‘well, I'm not on the ballot.’ So I don't know, but look, this whole Trump era, we're in uncharted waters.”
And sea levels are rising.
“I trust all courts but the Supreme Court.”
While Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) lost his primary earlier this cycle, he’s still one of the sharpest legal minds in Washington. Before coming to Congress, he served as lead counsel in President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial.
But even celebrated legal minds like Goldman don’t know what to expect as we inch towards Election Day.
“What do you do if Trump declares a national emergency ahead of the election?” Raw Story asked
“Well, that’s a good question,” Goldman told Raw Story on the last day the House of Representatives was in session until after the election. “I think we gotta go to court.”
“Do you trust the courts these days?” Raw Story pressed the former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
“I trust all courts but the Supreme Court,” Goldman said as he scurried up the Capitol’s steps on his way to vote on the House floor last month.
That’s the rub. Democrats’ defensive playbook unravels if the legal tides turn and their legal arguments are rejected, or if their lawsuits get tossed altogether.
“Expect the worst and be prepared for it.”
Still, the courts seem to be their only hope.
“One of the most important things that the [Democratic] Caucus is doing in coordination with all these national organizations is preparing emergency lawsuits,” Rep. Mellanie Stansbury (D-NM) told Raw Story.
“If, for example, the president illegally deploys law enforcement or the National Guard to polls, if he tries to seize ballot boxes, if there's voter intimidation or anything on that scale, we're going to need emergency court injunctions to stop him.”
“What if he declares a national emergency?” Raw Story, once again, pressed.
“Nobody knows what the president is capable of,” Stansbury told Raw Story. “I mean, you leave him alone for a weekend and he tweets hundreds of AI images. You know, I think that we have to expect the worst and be prepared for it.”