Speaker Johnson says Congress could eliminate a federal district court

• House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Congress could eliminate a federal district court as Republicans continue criticizing judges who have blocked President Trump’s agenda. Republicans say judges have overstepped their constitutional authority.
• Article Three of the Constitution allows Congress to “ordain and establish” lower courts.
• Johnson said the House will vote next week on a bill to eliminate nationwide injunctions.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Congress could eliminate a federal district court as Republicans continue criticizing judges who have blocked President Donald Trump’s agenda. 

“We do have authority over the federal courts. As you know, we can –– we can eliminate an entire district court,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday morning, March 25. “We have the power of funding over the courts and all these other things. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act.”

Johnson later walked back his comment and said he was speaking broadly about Congress’ authority over the courts. 

Article Three of the Constitution states, “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” 

Not all Republicans support defunding or cutting the amount of funding courts receive. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told NBC News that would create a massive backlog, adding it would be better to get more conservative judges confirmed. 

President Trump has fiercely criticized judges who have issued injunctions or blocks on his policies in recent days. The president called for a district court judge to be impeached and shared an essay online that made the case for charging judges who oppose him with treason and sedition.

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, introduced articles of impeachment against District Court Judge James Boasberg after he put a restraining order on deportation flights of alleged Venezuelan gang members. Republicans argue Boasberg exceeded his constitutional authority by blocking the president from carrying out his immigration agenda. 

Republicans also oppose the use of nationwide injunctions, which allow a single district court judge who covers a specific region to block an action across the country. 

“But something is happening right now that has not happened before in the last 100 years,” Johnson said. “Listen to this –– 67% of the injunctions issued against a president were issued against one president alone, and that’s Donald J. Trump.”

The House Judiciary Committee is working on legislation that would ban nationwide injunctions. Johnson said the full House will vote on the bill next week. 

“It is a dangerous trend, and it violates equal justice under law, that critical principle. It violates our system itself; it violates separation of powers,” Johnson said. “When a judge thinks that they can enjoin something that a president is doing that the American people voted for, that is not what the founders intended.”

Congress has abolished federal courts in the past, most recently in 1982, when it shut down the Court of Claims. It has made changes on numerous other occasions dating back to 1892.