• President Donald Trump has launched a full-blown assault on American institutions since taking office, making blatantly illegal (or unconstitutional) orders and allowing the world’s richest man to personally dismantle the federal government from the inside out. Elected Democrats lack a coherent plan to counter Trump’s chaos by themselves. The courts are, for now, moving at a snail’s pace to check his power. Trump has solidified control over  the Department of Justice, giving him enormous new legal firepower and the backing of the federal government. Trump’s allies believe he’s got the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in his back pocket, too. The future of democracy is looking grim — despite Minority Leaders Chuck Schumer’s “we will win!” chant.

• “It’s a test,” a rueful-looking Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), seated on a marble staircase inside the Capitol, told What A Day last night. “What we’ve seen now, here in this building, are spines of foam,” he said. Congress has “basically written itself out of the equation … There’s a lot resting upon the judicial branch of government right now.”

• If the courts fail this test, then the U.S. could look more like dictatorial countries, like Belarus or Hungary, Whitehouse said. “We're three steps in that direction, and now the test is when these FBI agents file their lawsuits, when they argue their case, when they get before judges, what’s the outcome?” Whitehouse said. “Is it Soviet-style kangaroo courts? Or do we get American justice showing up?”

• Trump’s opponents have notched some early legal victories. Now, the question is whether the legal system can keep up with Trump’s rapid-fire moves, and how it may react if the president ignores the rulings. Today, a U.S. district court in Washington, D.C. put new limits on Elon Musk and his DOGE allies’ ability to access government databases. Judges have slapped down Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, and restrained his spending freeze (after finding his administration didn’t comply with an earlier order). Another judge pushed back the deadline for Trump’s federal worker “buyout” from tonight to this Monday. 

• Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) called for coordination with state attorneys general, who are bringing lawsuits against Trump. “We can file briefs and be part of them. I think that's actually going to make a difference in the courts. I know it's hard to put your faith in the Supreme Court right now, but I do think that's part of it,” she told What A Day in a brief interview. The courts are still a functional check on Trump’s power, she said, but “it’s certainly not perfect.”

• Trump has mastered the dark art of slowing down the courts in both civil and criminal procedures. And that’s what he’s still trying to do, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) told What A Day. “We have to understand this is a suspension of the rule of law, not that it goes away completely … We’re going to push back, and we’ll end up winning in the courts.” As the old saying goes: Justice delayed is justice denied. 

• But legal scholars aren’t certain about beating Trump in court — in part because the Trump administration gets to nominate judges. “Much of the judiciary — and, in particular, the Supreme Court — is already Trumpified,” Louis Michael Seidman, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown, told What A Day. “As time goes by, he will appoint more and more judges who are sympathetic to him.”

• The Trump administration appears to be deliberately overreaching, while challenging the courts to rein them in, Steven Schwinn, a law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, told What A Day. Even if the administration is stopped, it may still score some wins along the way.

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