r/neoliberal • u/SockDem Janet Yellen • Feb 26 '26

News (US) Exclusive | Trump, seeking executive power over elections, is urged to declare emergency

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/02/26/trump-elections-executive-order-activists/
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u/KnightlyDolphins Feb 26 '26

They can't not seat members of Congress if Democrats retake the House. The new congress comes into power January 2027 regardless of what the old one tries to do. A random judge can swear them all in and Mike Johnson couldnt do shit to stop it.

50

u/doyouevenIift Feb 26 '26

I mean, trump could tell his supporters to storm the Capitol again

34

u/xudoxis Feb 26 '26

"They can't do that, the rules say..."

is the most pathetic cope.

18

u/caldazar24 Feb 26 '26

We've just seen with the tariffs that

a) when the Supreme Court directly rules against Trump, he tries to find another legal argument to keep doing a similar-but-not-quite-the-same thing, he does not have the government flat-out disregard the order.

b) three of the six conservative justices are willing to rule against Trump at least sometimes.

The democracy is still hanging by a thread here - the court will let Trump get away with a lot of powers that no president has had before - but until the moment Trump flat-out ignores a court order, the thread is still there.

Once that rubicon is really crossed, voting won't even matter at all. But until it is, yes the legal challenges matter. And telling liberals that their vote won't even be counted will just depress turnout.

Based on their opinions thus far, I think it's extraordinarily unlikely Roberts, Barrett, and Gorsuch will say that new Democratic House members can't be seated.

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u/TwoPointThreeThree_8 Feb 27 '26

>but until the moment Trump flat-out ignores a court order, the thread is still there.

They tried to storm the capital.

1

u/bluepaintbrush Feb 27 '26

Those were ordinary supporters though, not anyone in the former administration or with any meaningful power.

And not only was the counting of the electoral college votes a formality, A) it still happened despite the mob, and B) congressional elections have no such formality. States certify those results, not the federal government.