Editorial: Court rulings against Trump proof that democracy still works

Boston Herald editorial staff, Boston Herald on Apr 2, 2026

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It must have been a confounding day for “No Kings” protestors. Their placards at rallies held around the country decry President Trump’s “authoritarian regime” and the “fascism” under which Americans now live. They’ve blasted the ballroom Trump was building adjacent to the White House.

Two federal judges upended that notion Tuesday by checking Trump’s powers in making recent decisions. That’s checks and balances in action.

As The Hill reported, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon halted construction of Trump’s ballroom project, saying no statute “comes close” to granting him the authority he claims he has to execute the $400 million project.

Judge Leon said construction can continue when Congress authorizes it.

Trump may have done an end-run around Congress when he started the ballroom project, but the judicial branch stopped him. That’s democracy.

The same day, U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss permanently blocked Trump’s executive order to halt funding to National Public Radio and the Public Broadcast Service.

Trump signed this order last May, which directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from paying out allocated federal funding to NPR and PBS.

“Because the First Amendment does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type, the Court will issue judgment against the federal agency defendants declaring Section 3(a) of the Executive Order is unconstitutional and will issue an injunction barring those defendants from implementing it,” the judge, an appointee of former President Obama, wrote in his ruling.

Both NPR and PBS sued the Trump administration over this cut in funding, citing constitutional protections.

No matter how you feel about those decisions, the system works as it was designed. That’s the kind of democracy Democrats were certain would be crushed and set on fire leading up to the ’24 election, and every day since.

Dictators can’t be stopped by judicial ruling. There is no Congressional approval required for their actions, and if they skip that step, there is no judge telling them to go back to square one.

“No Kings, especially the kind that is under the restrictions of government checks and balances” wouldn’t fit on a poster, and is too long to coherently chant at protests.

People can dislike Trump, they certainly have the right to protest his actions, but ignoring the fact that there are lawsuits against him and government agencies, that judges are weighing in, that Congressional authority hasn’t eroded, and that actions are being halted or reversed undermines the premise that we’re in a fascist state. Democratic institutions don’t hold sway in a dictatorship, and ours still work.

“The Supreme Court blocked it, but that didn’t stop me.”

Those are the words of then-President Joe Biden, who in February of 2024 spoke in California of his student loan forgiveness plan. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that his previous plan was illegal. Biden announced “alternative paths” to forgive student debt.

Were there massive protests decrying his Supreme Court snub? Rallies slamming this “authoritarian” behavior?

Of course not.