Democrats Are Celebrating a Court Order Restoring SNAP Benefits. Have They Not Been Paying Attention?

Bottom Line Up Front (B.L.U.F.)

This is the fifth time federal judges have ordered the Trump administration to comply with something in 2025. The previous four times, they ignored the orders completely. In two cases, the Supreme Court eventually overturned the lower court orders, retroactively blessing what the administration had already done illegally. In the other two cases, the administration just kept violating the orders while appealing. Either way, the result was the same: no compliance. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us five times, and what the fuck are we doing?

On Friday, October 31, 2025, federal Judge John McConnell ordered the Trump administration to restore SNAP benefits using emergency contingency funds. The deadline: Monday, November 3 at noon. Democratic politicians and advocacy groups celebrated on social media. “Victory!” “The courts are protecting families!” “Democracy works!”

On March 15, 2025, federal Judge James Boasberg gave the Trump administration an oral order from the bench during an emergency hearing: turn the deportation planes around. Immediately. Bring those Venezuelan migrants back to U.S. soil.

The administration heard him. Then they sent three more planes anyway.

That moment crystallized something that legal experts have been reluctant to say out loud: federal courts have lost their enforcement power over an executive branch that simply refuses to acknowledge judicial authority when it rules against them. The Trump administration has discovered that judges can issue all the orders they want, but without an executive branch willing to enforce those orders, they’re just strongly worded suggestions.

This creates a different problem than most legal observers want to acknowledge. Multiple federal judges have explicitly found that the Trump administration is violating court orders. What matters is what happens when one branch of government decides that judicial orders only count when they agree with them, and there’s no enforcement mechanism that doesn’t depend on the very officials who are defying those orders.

Judge Boasberg’s April 16, 2025 ruling finding probable cause for criminal contempt against the Trump administration used language almost unprecedented in modern judicial history. He found “willful disregard” for his order. He found the government “deliberately flouted” both his written order and his oral command. He accused the administration of “increasing obstructionism” and “stonewalling.” Most significantly, he concluded that “the Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders, especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it.”

But here’s what matters: that ruling came a full month after the violation. The planes had already landed in El Salvador. The 261 migrants, including 137 Venezuelans protected by his order, were already locked in CECOT prison. Boasberg could write a 46-page opinion documenting willful contempt. He could threaten to refer the case to DOJ for prosecution or appoint a special prosecutor. None of it brought those planes back.

The administration’s response to being found in probable criminal contempt? White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declared that “a single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.” The message was clear: we don’t recognize your authority.

This wasn’t an isolated incident. On February 10, 2025, Judge John McConnell found that the Trump administration had continued implementing the federal funding freeze despite his explicit nationwide temporary restraining order blocking it. Federal agencies kept sending pause notifications to state health departments, universities, and nonprofits. Judge McConnell wrote that he was “deeply concerned” about “systematic non-compliance with a valid judicial order” and noted that “the rule of law means nothing if the executive branch simply ignores court orders it finds inconvenient.”

On May 21, 2025, Judge Brian Murphy found the administration’s deportation of eight migrants to third countries “unquestionably violative” of his April 18 order. He stated it was “impossible” that the migrants had meaningful opportunity to challenge their removal since they received only 17 hours notice late at night. He openly considered holding the government in contempt for criminal obstruction, saying “based on what I have been told, this seems like it may be contempt.”

On October 14, 2025, Judge William Smith found that the Trump administration’s new FEMA grant conditions were a “ham-handed attempt to bully the states” that was “not a good faith effort to comply with the order.” He explicitly found the administration had violated his previous court order.

Four different federal judges. Four explicit findings of violation. Judges appointed by Obama, Biden, and even Bush. The bipartisan nature of these findings matters because it demolishes any argument that this represents partisan opposition rather than legitimate legal concerns about executive branch defiance.

The Kilmar Abrego García case shows what happens when every level of the federal judiciary agrees the administration violated the law. An immigration judge issued a 2019 order prohibiting his deportation to El Salvador due to credible fear of persecution. ICE deported him anyway on March 15, 2025. Judge Paula Xinis called it an “illegal act” and ordered the government to bring him back by midnight April 7. The administration appealed. The Fourth Circuit denied the appeal. The Supreme Court affirmed the order to “facilitate” his return.

The administration’s response? They claimed no authority to return someone they’d illegally deported. For two months, they refused. When they finally brought him back June 6, it was to charge him with human trafficking, not to comply with court orders.

Or consider the federal funding freeze cases. Judge McConnell issued his order on January 31, blocking the freeze. Agencies continued implementing it. On February 3, Judge Loren AliKhan found the administration’s claimed “rescission” of the OMB memo was a “thinly veiled attempt to prevent this court from granting relief” and that he could “think of few things more disingenuous” than claiming they had rescinded the freeze. The evidence showed they hadn’t. Judge McConnell then issued a 45-page preliminary injunction on March 6 that indefinitely blocked the freeze after “a litany of struggles experienced by the States in the last seven weeks” caused by the administration’s “continued attempts to implement the funding freeze.”

ProPublica documented organizations unable to operate even after the March 6 preliminary injunction. Phoenix Health Clinic laid off employees and cut salaries. Walker Basin Conservancy couldn’t hire seasonal workers. Poudre River Restoration was told “grants are suspended” after being told they were safe.

The preliminary injunction didn’t stop it. The violations continued.

Here’s the pattern that brings clarity to the situation: the Trump administration aggressively pursues favorable court rulings and immediately complies with those. When the Supreme Court granted a stay on September 26, 2025 allowing them to withhold $4 billion in foreign aid (the exact thing lower courts had ordered them to stop doing), they moved immediately. When the Supreme Court overturned Judge Murphy’s third-country removal order on June 23, 2025, deportation flights resumed within days.

The Supreme Court rewarded the administration for ignoring lower court orders by giving them permission to do exactly what they’d been doing illegally. Defy the order, appeal to a friendlier court, get the order overturned. It works.

But when courts rule against them? The administration employs a consistent set of tactics that Georgetown Law Professor David Super identified: “They insist that injunctions relate only to one source of legal authority and then manufacture another to keep doing what they have been ordered not to do.”

The methods are predictable. After one legal basis is blocked, they invoke different statutory authority. They claim orders apply only to specific agencies or funding types, even when language is clear. They deny funding to organizations whose granting agencies weren’t defendants. They cite “operational” challenges. They invoke state secrets privilege. They implement blocked policies with clauses saying they’re contingent on appeals. Judges repeatedly rejected these arguments as contradicted by evidence.

The Trump administration’s own statements reveal how they view judicial authority. Vice President JD Vance: “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” President Trump on a radio show: “Judges should be ruling. They shouldn’t be dictating what you’re supposed to be doing.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt after the OMB memo “rescission”: “more executive action will continue to end the egregious waste of federal funding.”

Yale Law Professor Nicholas Parrillo’s 2018 Harvard Law Review study found “no examples of open presidential defiance of court orders in the years since 1865.” The last comparable defiance was Southern governors refusing to integrate schools after Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

Legal experts have been direct about what 2025 represents. David Super: “one step short of outright defiance.” Retired Federal Judge Nancy Gertner, now at Harvard Law: “If Trump wanted to fully not comply, he could direct DOJ not to comply. At that point, you have a full-on constitutional crisis.”

Except that’s exactly what the evidence shows. Four federal judges made explicit findings of violation. Judge Boasberg found probable cause for criminal contempt based on “willful disregard” and “deliberately flouted” orders. Judge Murphy found actions “unquestionably violative” of his order. Judge McConnell found “systematic non-compliance.” Judge Smith found a “ham-handed attempt to bully the states” that was not good faith compliance. These aren’t allegations. These are formal judicial findings by federal judges.

The administration’s position is more sophisticated than announcing they won’t comply. They comply when convenient, delay when possible, ignore when necessary, and manufacture new rationales when blocked. They create procedural fog while doing what they were ordered not to do.

Retired Federal Judge Nancy Gertner, now at Harvard Law, explained the administration’s calculation: “It’s particularly troubling that someone says they can’t wait out 14 days. If you don’t like the order, you oppose it at the preliminary injunction phase, and then you appeal. You don’t thumb your nose at the courts in the interim.” But the administration discovered something important: if you do thumb your nose at the courts, and the mechanism for enforcing compliance depends on DOJ officials you control, nothing happens except some strongly worded judicial opinions.

Justice Sotomayor wrote in dissent after the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration and overturned Judge Murphy’s order (the same order the administration had already violated): “Apparently, the Court finds the idea that thousands will suffer violence in far-flung locales more palatable than the remote possibility that a District Court exceeded its remedial powers. This is not the first time the court closes its eyes to noncompliance, nor, I fear, will it be the last.” She accused the majority of “rewarding lawlessness” and warned its actions “further erodes respect for courts and for the rule of law.”

She wasn’t being metaphorical. The Supreme Court literally rewarded the administration’s lawlessness by overturning the order they’d already violated.

Even Supreme Court justices are acknowledging that judicial authority is being systematically undermined.

Here’s what the Trump administration has demonstrated works to nullify judicial authority. Claim ambiguity in clear language. Invoke different authority after one is blocked. Create bureaucratic confusion. Argue orders don’t apply to specific situations. Let deadlines pass. Follow orders while appealing. Invoke privileges to avoid providing evidence. Claim good faith while violating orders.

Most importantly: recognize that enforcement depends on officials you control. Contempt enforcement requires DOJ prosecutors. If DOJ won’t prosecute its own administration, contempt findings are symbolic. Special prosecutors take months or years while violations continue.

The Trump administration has learned what happens when you call the judiciary’s bluff: nothing they can’t manage. Strongly worded opinions don’t reverse deportations. Contempt findings don’t unfreeze funding. Orders don’t matter if the executive branch decides they don’t.

Here’s the reality: traditional rule-of-law approaches are failing against an administration that doesn’t recognize judicial authority as legitimate when it constrains them. Filing lawsuits, winning injunctions, getting favorable rulings, even Supreme Court agreement, none guarantees compliance.

One side is bound by institutional norms the other ignores. The Trump administration treats courts as legitimate only when courts agree. When courts rule against them, they deploy tactics to delay, evade, or defy while maintaining a veneer of legal process.

Legal challenges can slow implementation, create documentation, impose costs, and occasionally succeed when the administration faces unified opposition. But legal challenges alone will not stop an administration that violates court orders when convenient and suffers no meaningful consequences.

The Supreme Court is captured. Federal law enforcement won’t touch this administration because this administration controls federal law enforcement. Traditional legal strategies aren’t just failing, they’re providing cover for the systematic dismantling of judicial authority.

The rule of law cannot survive as a one-way street where only one side is bound by judicial authority. Executive power is now constrained only by political consequences, not legal ones.

Four federal judges made explicit findings that the Trump administration violated their orders. Those findings meant nothing in practice. The violations continued. That’s the reality of where we are in 2025.

If this administration ignores court orders to restore SNAP benefits, deports people in defiance of three levels of federal judiciary, and suffers zero consequences, they will absolutely ignore court orders related to elections. If Texas decides not to count votes from Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, who exactly holds them accountable? If Florida throws out ballots from Miami-Dade and Broward County, what enforcement mechanism exists? If Georgia refuses to certify results from Atlanta despite a federal court order, who prosecutes? This DOJ won’t. Federal marshals won’t enforce compliance. And state officials who help steal elections won’t just avoid consequences. They’ll get Trump pardons, administration job offers, Fox News contributor deals, and the gratitude of a president who needs them to remain in power.

The pattern we documented isn’t just about deportations and funding. We’re watching the dress rehearsal. They’re learning which courts reward defiance (SCOTUS), which enforcement mechanisms don’t work (contempt referrals to DOJ), and what happens when you ignore orders (nothing). They’re stress-testing the system and finding it has no fail-safes when the executive simply refuses to enforce judicial authority against itself.

The only consequences they face are if they fail to stop democracy. Think about that incentive structure.

When rule of law breaks down, successful resistance requires non-compliance and soft secession. Blue states stop cooperating with federal enforcement. Sanctuary policies expand beyond immigration to include state-level protection for targeted individuals and organizations. Interstate compacts that bypass federal authority. Parallel systems that don’t depend on federal cooperation. Making it politically costly and operationally difficult for this administration to implement its agenda in states that refuse to participate.

That response requires specific officials with actual enforcement power: Democratic attorneys general and governors in the 25 states where they currently serve. These officials control state law enforcement, state regulatory agencies, state courts, and state resources. When federal courts lose their enforcement power because DOJ won’t act, state attorneys general become the only officials with authority and incentive to prosecute federal overreach. When federal marshals won’t enforce judicial orders, governors control state police and National Guard units. When this administration protects state officials who violate court orders around elections, only state attorneys general can prosecute them.

Twenty-five states currently have at least one Democratic official serving as attorney general or governor. Nineteen have both. These officials need to hear that their constituents expect them to prepare state-level resistance infrastructure now, not after the next violation. They need to know that voters understand courts alone cannot stop this administration, and that state enforcement power is the only viable defense against the systematic dismantling of democratic institutions.

Below is contact information for every Democratic attorney general and governor currently in office. Send them this article along with a few sentences about why you hope they’ll read it and why you care.

Democratic State Officials Contact Directory (As of November 2025)

25 states currently have at least one Democratic official serving as Governor or Attorney General. This directory provides official constituent contact information for these elected officials.

Complete State Listings

Arizona

Governor: Katie Hobbs (D) Email: Online contact form at azgovernor.gov Phone: (602) 542-4043

Attorney General: Kris Mayes (D) Email: [email protected] Phone: (602) 542-5025

California

Governor: Gavin Newsom (D) Email: Online contact form at gov.ca.gov Phone: (916) 445-2841

Attorney General: Rob Bonta (D) Email: Online contact form at oag.ca.gov Phone: Contact via website

Colorado

Governor: Jared Polis (D) Email: Online contact form at colorado.gov Phone: Contact via website

Attorney General: Phil Weiser (D) Email: Online contact form at coag.gov Phone: Contact via website

Connecticut

Governor: Ned Lamont (D) Email: Online contact form at portal.ct.gov/governor Phone: (860) 566-4840 or 1-800-406-1527

Attorney General: William Tong (D) Email: [email protected] Phone: (860) 808-5318 or (860) 808-5387

Delaware

Governor: Matt Meyer (D) Email: Contact via delaware.gov Phone: Contact via website

Attorney General: Kathy Jennings (D) Email: Contact via attorneygeneral.delaware.gov Phone: Contact via website

Hawaii

Governor: Josh Green (D) Email: Online contact form at governor.hawaii.gov Phone: (808) 586-0034

Attorney General: Anne E. Lopez (D) Email: Online contact form at ag.hawaii.gov Phone: (808) 586-1500

Illinois

Governor: JB Pritzker (D) Email: Online contact form at gov.illinois.gov/contact-us Phone: (217) 782-0244

Attorney General: Kwame Raoul (D) Email: Online contact form at illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/contact Phone: (217) 782-1090 (Springfield) or (312) 814-3000 (Chicago)

Kansas

Governor: Laura Kelly (D) Email: [email protected] Phone: (785) 368-8500

Attorney General: Kris Kobach (R) - Not applicable

Kentucky

Governor: Andy Beshear (D) Email: Online contact form at governor.ky.gov/contact Phone: (502) 564-2611

Attorney General: Russell Coleman (R) - Not applicable

Maine

Governor: Janet Mills (D) Email: [email protected] Phone: (207) 287-3531

Attorney General: Aaron Frey (D) Email: Contact via maine.gov/ag Phone: Contact via website

Maryland

Governor: Wes Moore (D) Email: Contact via maryland.gov Phone: Contact via website

Attorney General: Anthony Brown (D) Email: Contact via marylandattorneygeneral.gov Phone: Contact via website

Massachusetts

Governor: Maura Healey (D) Email: [email protected] Phone: (617) 725-4005 or (888) 870-7770 (toll-free in MA)

Attorney General: Andrea Campbell (D) Email: Online contact form at mass.gov/orgs/office-of-the-attorney-general Phone: Contact via website

Michigan

Governor: Gretchen Whitmer (D) Email: Online contact form at michigan.gov/whitmer/contact Phone: (517) 335-7858

Attorney General: Dana Nessel (D) Email: Online contact form at michigan.gov/ag Phone: (313) 456-0240 (Detroit) or (517) 335-7622 (Lansing)

Minnesota

Governor: Tim Walz (D) Email: Online contact form at mn.gov/governor/contact Phone: (651) 201-3400 or (800) 657-3717 (toll-free)

Attorney General: Keith Ellison (D) Email: Online contact form at ag.state.mn.us Phone: (651) 296-3353 or (800) 657-3787 (outside Twin Cities)

Nevada

Governor: Joe Lombardo (R) - Not applicable

Attorney General: Aaron D. Ford (D) Email: Contact via ag.nv.gov Phone: (775) 684-1100 (Carson City)

New Jersey

Governor: Phil Murphy (D) Email: Contact via nj.gov Phone: Contact via website

Attorney General: Matthew Platkin (D) Email: Contact via njoag.gov Phone: Contact via website

New Mexico

Governor: Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) Email: Online contact form at governor.state.nm.us Phone: (505) 476-2200 or (833) 520-0020 (toll-free)

Attorney General: Raúl Torrez (D) Email: Contact via nmdoj.gov Phone: Contact via website

New York

Governor: Kathy Hochul (D) Email: Contact via ny.gov Phone: Contact via website

Attorney General: Letitia James (D) Email: Contact via ag.ny.gov Phone: Contact via website

North Carolina

Governor: Josh Stein (D) Email: [email protected] Phone: (919) 814-2000

Attorney General: Jeff Jackson (D) Email: [email protected] Phone: (919) 538-2809

Oregon

Governor: Tina Kotek (D) Email: [email protected] Phone: (503) 378-4582

Attorney General: Dan Rayfield (D) Email: [email protected] Phone: (503) 378-6002

Pennsylvania

Governor: Josh Shapiro (D) Email: Contact via pa.gov Phone: Contact via website

Attorney General: Dave Sunday (R) - Not applicable

Rhode Island

Governor: Dan McKee (D) Email: Online contact form at governor.ri.gov/contact Phone: (401) 222-2080

Attorney General: Peter Neronha (D) Email: Contact via riag.ri.gov Phone: Contact via website

Vermont

Governor: Phil Scott (R) - Not applicable

Attorney General: Charity Clark (D) Email: Contact via website Phone: Contact via website

Washington

Governor: Bob Ferguson (D) Email: Online contact form at governor’s website Phone: (360) 902-4111

Attorney General: Nick Brown (D) Email: Online contact form at atg.wa.gov Phone: (360) 753-6200

Wisconsin

Governor: Tony Evers (D) Email: Online contact forms at evers.wi.gov/pages/connect.aspx Phone: Contact via website

Attorney General: Josh Kaul (D) Email: Online contact form at doj.state.wi.us Phone: (608) 266-1221

Summary Statistics

States with both Democratic Governor AND Attorney General (19): Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii

States with only Democratic Governor (3): Kansas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania

States with only Democratic Attorney General (2): Nevada, Vermont

Total: 25 states with at least one Democratic official

Important Notes

Many states now use online contact forms rather than direct email addresses for constituent communications due to security and efficiency considerations

Phone numbers listed are main constituent services lines

All contact information is from official state government websites (.gov or state.XX.us domains)

Oregon and North Carolina provide the most direct email access for constituent inquiries

Information current as of November 2025

References

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Vance, J. D. [@JDVance]. (2025, February 9). If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power [Post]. X. https://x.com/JDVance/status/1888607143030391287

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