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Published by The Galveston County Daily News Published: September 27, 2025
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch assailed lower courts for defying previous Supreme Court decisions; making rulings that run afoul of the high courts’ previous decisions.  He made it clear the High Court’s rulings are the law of the land, There’ve been a series of Supreme Court decisions the left doesn’t like, often seeking left-leaning lower-court judges and favorable rulings that defy previous Supreme Court rulings.  They can’t stop the Trump agenda so, they’ll try to slow it down until his term is over.  It’s called “Lawfare,” using the courts to do what the voters rejected.  Justice Gorsuch highlighted a case where the administration cut millions of dollars in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants.  This is the “third time in a matter of weeks” the Court had to reverse a lower court on an issue it had already addressed.   Gorsuch wrote, “Lower court judges may sometimes disagree with this Court’s decisions, but they are never free to defy them.”   He called it a deliberate defiance of Supreme Court precedent.     Earlier the high court ruled the Trump administration could terminate nearly $800 million in health research grants from NIH.  The grants were linked to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. The Court’s order froze a Massachusetts district court ruling that had ordered the restoration of the grants.  Gorsuch, joined by Justice Bret Kavanaugh argued the lower courts in this case were ignoring clear Supreme Court decisions.     They wrote, "unless we wish anarchy to prevail within the federal judicial system, a precedent of this Court must be followed by the lower federal courts no matter how misguided the judges of those courts may think it to be."  Their rebuke highlighted a growing frustration among justices on the Supreme Court over what they view as lower courts overstepping their authority and acting as "policymakers." It's an attempt by left-wing judges to set policy, which is the authority of the Executive Branch. If this is allowed to continue our judicial branch may self-destruct.  A novel solution:     Perhaps Congress could pass legislation authorizing the Supreme Court to put lower court judges who clearly defy the high court’s rulings on administrative leave without pay for 90 days.  If they failed to get the message and do it again, Congress might grant the Supreme Court authority to place the judge on administrative leave without pay for 180 days.  If that fails to reign in attempts to circumvent the high court’s decisions, perhaps the Court could be authorized to refer that judge to the House Judiciary Committee for possible impeachment proceedings while placing him/her on administrative leave without pay for a year? Another alternative might be for the Congress -- which has the Constitutional authority to establish the lower courts -- to defund any lower court that defies Supreme Court precedents. We don’t know if this would work, or even if it’s Constitutional; but something needs to be done to stop the “Lawfare.”  We need to stop the chaos and misuse of, our justice system.   At the same time, while we like the makeup of the current high court, we need to consider what we wrote in our last column [Be Careful What You Wish For, September 4th], remembering the high court may not always be to our liking.   Actions have consequences so be careful what you wish for.
	About the Author and Columnist 2025 Bill and Mansius have written over 300 guest columnsr and editorials together over the last ten years for numerous publications across the country and they continue to do so. Bill lives in Texas and Mark in Utah. Both gentlemen ran against each other in the 2012 Republican Primary for Texas Congressional District 14. Since then they have become close friends and colleagues. In addition to formerly being responsible for overseeing elections in Galveston County as Galveston's Chief Deputy Clerk for Elections, Bill has worked with the Texas State Legislature to improve and craft election legisation.

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