⚖️ Supreme Court Accountability: Power, Justice, and the Fight for Democracy | March 17, 2026
Supreme Court Accountability, March 17: Trump attacks the Court after tariff ruling, 356,000 face deportation without TPS protections, and $175 billion in illegal tariff refunds are ordered.
Every term, the Supreme Court hands down decisions that reach into our homes, our bodies, our ballots, and our futures. Every American lives with the consequences of what nine unelected justices decide. This week: the Court temporarily blocked deportation of 356,000 Haitians and Syrians while Trump attacks the Court, falsely claims it endorsed his "absolute right" to impose tariffs, and fights a court order to refund $175 billion in illegal duties. The stakes have never been higher — and the grassroots resistance movement demanding court accountability is growing louder by the day.
This isn’t left versus right. It’s about a Court that has placed ideology above the Constitution, permitted ethics scandals to go unchecked, and issued rulings that strip rights from millions while shielding the powerful from consequence.
When a co-equal branch of government operates without accountability, democracy doesn’t just bend — it breaks.
Supreme Court Accountability exists to make sure that doesn’t happen on our watch.
Why the Grassroots Resistance Can’t Wait
💥 Your Power in Action: What You Can Do Today
🚫 Take action: Tell the Supreme Court: Trump is not above the law
⚖️ Take action: Tell the Supreme Court to enforce the new ethics code
📜 Take action: Tell Congress to pass the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act
🗳️ Bonus action: Register to vote, vote in every election, and help your community do the same. Reproductive freedom is won and lost at the ballot box.
👑 Bonus action: Sign up for the next national No Kings Day of Action and show up in solidarity with everyone whose rights are under attack.
🏛️What’s Happening Right Now at the Supreme Court
🛂 Supreme Court Temporarily Blocks Deportation of 356,000 Haitians and Syrians, Sets April Arguments
The Supreme Court on Monday halted Trump’s plan to strip Temporary Protected Status from roughly 6,000 Syrians and 350,000 Haitians, blocking their deportation while cases move through the legal system. In an unsigned order, the Court set expedited arguments for April on whether TPS designations are reviewable by courts at all — with a final ruling expected by end of June. Notably, this is the first time the Court has not immediately sided with the administration on a TPS revocation request. (NPR)
Why It Matters for Democracy: Haitians have held TPS protections since a catastrophic 2010 earthquake. Syrians have held them since 2012 — and Trump extended their protections himself in his first term. These are more than 356,000 people — parents, workers, neighbors — whose lives hang on what nine justices decide. The Court’s temporary stay buys time, but the June ruling will define whether an executive can strip humanitarian protections without any judicial check. This is exactly why who sits on the Supreme Court is a life-or-death question for real people in our communities right now.
⚠️ Trump Attacks the Supreme Court and Falsely Claims It Endorsed His “Absolute Right” to Impose Tariffs
After the Court’s February ruling struck down his sweeping tariffs as unconstitutional, Trump took to Truth Social to attack the Court, claiming it had “unnecessarily ransacked” the US economy. He falsely claimed the ruling acknowledged his “absolute right” to impose tariffs in another form — a misrepresentation fact-checkers confirm the majority opinion does not support. Trump then singled out Justices Kavanaugh, Alito, and Thomas — who dissented — and praised them publicly for their “wisdom and courage.” (The Guardian)
Why It Matters for Democracy: When a president attacks the Court for ruling against him and publicly applauds the justices who sided with him, that is a president eroding the independence of the judiciary in real time. Kavanaugh, Alito, and Thomas are sitting on a Court with no binding ethics code, no term limits, and no independent oversight — and they are being openly cheered by the president whose cases they are deciding. That is not a check on power. That is judicial capture playing out in public, and it is exactly what Supreme Court accountability reform is designed to prevent.
💵 Federal Judge Orders $175 Billion in Illegal Tariff Refunds — and the Trump Administration Is Already Fighting It
Judge Richard Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that all importers who paid Trump’s now-illegal tariffs are entitled to refunds — a potential $175 billion liability for the federal government. The administration is expected to appeal or seek a stay to delay compliance, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection has acknowledged its system was never designed to process refunds at this scale. A second federal court also rejected the administration’s attempt to slow the process down. (Seattle Times)
Why It Matters for Democracy: The Supreme Court ruled that taxation power belongs to Congress — not the president. The administration collected more than $130 billion from importers under tariffs it had no legal authority to impose, and is now fighting every mechanism designed to return that money. That is an executive branch that took from the public without justification, and is using every legal delay tactic available to hold on to it. Courts doing their job is worth defending. It is also worth asking: what happens when a future Court, shaped by the Federalist Society and dark money, simply stops doing it?
⚖️ WHY THESE STORIES MATTER
Step back and the pattern is unmistakable. An administration stripping humanitarian protections from 356,000 people without due process. A president publicly attacking the Supreme Court, celebrating dissenting justices, and misrepresenting a ruling to claim unchecked authority. A government that collected $175 billion in tariffs it had no legal right to take — and is fighting to keep every dollar. These are not isolated legal skirmishes. They are the systematic dismantling of the principle that no one — not even the president — is above the law. The Court’s 6-3 conservative supermajority was built by the Federalist Society pipeline and dark money confirmation campaigns for exactly this moment — to have at least three justices ready to endorse whatever the executive branch demands.
And yet courts are still ruling against this administration. Judges are still ordering refunds. A temporary block is still protecting 356,000 people from deportation today. People power is part of why that’s still true. The No Kings movement, the grassroots pressure for term limits and a binding ethics code, the advocates who show up week after week — they are building the accountability infrastructure the Court still lacks. Reform doesn’t come from the top. It is demanded from below, the way every meaningful reform in American history has ever come. That is us. Keep going.
💥 What You Can Do Today
⚖️ Defend TPS: Contact your senators and demand they oppose any effort to eliminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, Syrians, and others fleeing devastation.
💸 Fight the tariff stall: Tell your House representative to oppose any administration attempt to block or delay the $175 billion in illegal tariff refunds owed to importers and consumers.
🔷 How We Restore Accountability and Demand Supreme Court Reform
A Supreme Court without accountability doesn’t just fail the people — it actively transfers power from the many to the few.
This is why expanding the Court, establishing 18-year term limits, and adopting a binding ethics code with real enforcement aren’t radical demands. They are the minimum conditions for a judiciary that can legitimately claim equal justice under law.
Expand the Court to restore balance
Set term limits to end lifetime partisanship
Adopt a binding ethics code with real enforcement
Reform isn’t radical — it’s necessary.
Take Action: Tell Your Member of Congress: Expand the Supreme Court to protect our voting and civil rights, create term limits, and institute a code of ethics
Justice belongs to the people.
Together, we can champion our rights, freedoms, and democracy, hold our leaders accountable to the people’s will, and inspire voters to make a meaningful difference.
Laurie Woodward Garcia (paid with hugs and kisses, not bought by special interests) Leader, People Power United
People Power United | In this community, we will always speak out against racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, misogyny, sexism, ageism, ableism, sizeism, elitism, transphobia, misogynoir, and bigotry!
This is our moment to rise, resist, and reclaim our rights, freedoms, rule of law, and democracy. Millions of Americans are already refusing to back down — in the streets, at the ballot box, and in their communities.
Every movement that was ever won started with people who refused to quit. We are those people.
The future is not lost. It is being built — by us, right now.