WASHINGTON — Following multiple reports of House Republicans saying they did not know many of the details in what President Donald Trump calls his “one, big beautiful bill” when they voted for it last month, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is honing in on a very specific and contentious provision in the legislation. On Thursday, Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill’s language stripping federal judges of their ability to enforce their own rulings is “nasty.”

What You Need To Know

  • Following multiple reports of House Republicans saying they did not know many of the details in what President Donald Trump calls his “one, big beautiful bill” when they voted for it last month, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., honed in on a very specific and contentious provision in the legislation

  • On Thursday, Schumer said the bill’s language stripping federal judges of their ability to enforce their own rulings is “nasty”

  • Last week, Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., said during a town hall in his district that he did not know Trump’s big, beautiful bill included a limitation on judges’ power to hold people in contempt if they violated court orders

  • Schumer said the judiciary provision in the 1,116-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act currently working its way through the Senate was buried deep in the document

“Republicans want to codify into law Donald Trump’s attacks on our judicial system,” Schumer said at a news conference, where he stood next to a poster that read “Trump is not a king." “They want to gut our federal courts until they’re utterly powerless.”

Last week, Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., said during a town hall in his district that he did not know the legislation he voted for included a limitation on judges’ power to hold people in contempt if they violated court orders and didn't agree with the provision.

Schumer said the judiciary provision in the 1,116-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act currently working its way through the Senate was buried deep in the document. Calling it “evil and un-American,” Schumer said the provision was one of the most direct assaults on the constitutionally mandated separation of powers between the three separate but equal branches of government.

The provision allowing people to defy court orders also applies to Supreme Court rulings, Schumer said.

“Let’s call this what it is: It’s the get-out-of-jail-free card for Donald Trump,” he said, before vowing to fight the bill with every tool available to the Democrats, who are in the minority in both chambers of Congress.

He said a Senate Democrats’ analysis found that in the last month the Trump administration had lost 97% of the rulings in federal district courts from judges across the political spectrum, including Trump appointees from his first term.

According to the Lawfare website, there are currently 295 active legal challenges to Trump administration executive actions.

“No one — not Donald Trump, not Elon Musk, not any crooked politician or billionaire — is above the law,” Schumer said. “If Republicans think they can pull a fast one on the American people by slipping this provision into their bill, they’ve got another thing coming.”