An effort by Senate Republicans to restrict the power of federal judges to block Trump administration policies with preliminary injunctions has been ruled ineligible to remain in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill.
The ruling, delivered by the Senate parliamentarian on Sunday, was the latest blow to Republicans from the nonpartisan official tasked with refereeing what is and is not allowed under the filibuster-skirting process of budget reconciliation being used for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The provision, crafted by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), sought to limit preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders issued by federal judges against Trump administration policies by requiring those who sue to post costly bonds to cover the government’s costs if the order is later overturned.
A spokesperson for Grassley said Democrats were “clinging to their radical open borders legacy” after they successfully convinced the parliamentarian that the policy ran afoul of the Byrd Rule, which requires all language to have a direct fiscal effect.
They added that Republicans “will continue using all available avenues” to “ensure courts operate according to lawful and constitutional standards.”
Meanwhile, Democrats took their latest victory lap after a series of parliamentarian rulings in recent days struck down other GOP provisions, including environmental rollbacks and zeroing out the Consumer Financial Protection Agency’s budget.
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Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, assailed the injunctions language as “simply an attempted power grab by our Republican colleagues that we would not stand for.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) compared trying to limit injunctions against the president to a “brazen attempt [to] crown Trump king” and was a “downright un-American provision.”