Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is the latest high-ranking Republican to slam district court judges, saying the Constitution would not have been ratified if the Founding Fathers believed the judges had so much power.
The Trump administration has faced a string of legal setbacks over the last month, with district judges issuing nationwide injunctions that stop his plans on the spot. President Donald Trump and backers such as Elon Musk have called for them to be impeached, and while DeSantis didn’t go that far, he agreed that the situation has gotten out of hand.
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“If you went back during the debates about ratifying the Constitution, and you would have said that under this Constitution, a district judge would be able to neuter the president’s ability on a nationwide basis to discharge the duties of his office — if the founding generation believed that the Constitution actually authorized that, it would not have been ratified,” DeSantis told Fox News host Mark Levin on Life, Liberty & Levin.
DeSantis: If you went back and during the debates about ratifying the constitution and you would have said that under this constitution a district judge would be able to neuter the president’s ability on a nationwide basis to discharge the duties of his office. If the founding… pic.twitter.com/CM6duqRC6R
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 30, 2025
Trump and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have slashed budgets and cut jobs across the federal government but have also been on the wrong side of judicial rulings, such as that fired employees must be rehired, DOGE’s shuttering of agencies is unconstitutional, and that DOGE cannot even access information in some cases.
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Levin opined that judges ruling against Trump are doing so to “protect this massive bureaucracy” in Washington, D.C., and to expand their own powers. DeSantis agreed, saying the country’s founders would not have supported such a role for district judges.
“It would have been viewed as so outside the bounds of what is acceptable that there’s no way it would have even passed muster,” DeSantis said. “So yes, these judges are serving a political role, a partisan role, and it’s to throw whatever sand in the gears they can to prevent President Trump from being successful.”
