This GOP proposal would 'make it all but impossible' to 'sue Trump for dictatorial behavior'

Much of the criticism of President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" — which narrowly passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, 215-214, and is now being considered in the U.S. Senate — is focusing on its severe cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), known as "food stamps" in the past. But the megabill addresses many other things as well.

Liberal/progressive journalist Thom Hartmann, in an article published by The New Republic on June 20, examines a provision in the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 that, he warns, would make it much more difficult for attorneys to sue The Trump Administration in response to executive orders they consider unconstitutional.

"The good news is that Senate Republicans have removed the provision in their Kill Medicaid to Pay for Tax Cuts for Billionaires ('big, beautiful bill') legislation that would have prevented courts from being able to hold Trump's people in contempt of court when they refuse to follow court orders," Hartmann explains. "The bad news is that they've replaced it with a provision in Section 70302 of the bill that will make it all but impossible for anybody — other than billionaires and giant corporations — to sue the Trump Administration for dictatorial behavior, or anything else, in federal court."

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Hartmann continues, "This may have something to do with the fact that over 300 lawsuits have been filed against Trump and his goons, and federal courts have blocked Trump in at least 187 of them, as of this week. Trump has outright won only 7.1 percent of the cases where he or his administration have been sued. The system Republican senators have inserted to keep you and me —and nonprofit public interest groups and blue-state governors — from suing Trump is pretty straightforward: Instead of just filing the lawsuit and paying the typically small fees associated with those filings, you'll now have to post a bond that could run into the millions or even billions of dollars before your filing can be accepted by the court."

Hartmann notes that Alicia Bannon of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, recently told the San Francisco Chronicle, "If this language becomes law, it will be financially impossible for ordinary Americans to go to court to protect their rights, like trying to make sure they receive Social Security payments or are protected against unlawful deportation. Bonds for those orders could cost many millions of dollars."

Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick, Hartmann observes, is sounding the alarm as well. In his newsletter UnPopulist, Bolick wrote, "That is especially true in cases involving sweeping policies where the government could claim 'costs' in the billions. Only state governments could conceivably post bonds in that amount, though they would also balk at the potential hit to their budgets."

Hartmann offers specific examples of the type of lawsuits that the Section 70302 provision in Trump's "big, beautiful bill" would discourage.

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"Are you a citizen who's been arrested and detained illegally by ICE and held in detention for months where you were starved and beaten up?" Hartmann writes. "ICE could claim it'll cost them $10 million or $50 million to litigate and resolve your case, so that's what you'll have to put up before you can ask the court for relief or damages."

Hartmann continues, "Have you been denied reentry to the United States? Assaulted, robbed, or raped by an ICE, FBI, or other federal officer? Had your Social Security or Medicare benefits cut off as punishment for your political activities? Arrested and held in a hellhole Louisiana private prison for years for carrying a sign protesting Trump's fascist behavior? Tough luck, as the old saying goes…. In other words, America is on the verge of dictatorship, and this will push us over the edge in a way that may well be irreversible."

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Thom Hartmann's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.