President Donald Trump’s so-called “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act” passed in the U.S. House of Representatives by a narrow vote of 215-214. This massive legislation — totaling more than 1,000 pages — uses a complicated congressional procedure known as “budget reconciliation” to allow the Senate to pass it with fewer votes than would normally be required, and without bipartisan support.
Most attention on this budget bill has centered around issues like the tax code, Medicaid and immigration. However, there is a lot more hidden in the House’s reconciliation proposal, including two provisions Campaign Legal Center (CLC) has identified that would severely harm voters and threaten the rule of law.
An Attack on the Judicial Branch
The first of these outrageous policies — buried in Section 70302 of the legislation— would severely restrict federal courts’ authority to hold government officials in contempt if they violate judicial orders.
A court’s ability to hold bad actors in contempt is a vital enforcement power that judges can use to compel compliance with their rulings.
When somebody chooses to violate a court order, the judge who issued the ruling has a few different options to force them to comply, including holding them in contempt and issuing sanctions, fines, or even jail time as a punishment.
But the reconciliation bill would require anyone suing the government to pay a bond before the court can use its contempt power to enforce injunctions or restraining orders meant to halt illegal actions.
By restricting this authority, the House bill threatens the power of the judicial branch. On its own, that represents an attack on the rule of law and the separation of powers that underlies our democracy. But in the context of our current political moment, a more specific goal is unfortunately clear.
Courts have already ruled at least 170 times against the Trump administration, including a preliminary injunction sought by CLC that halted Trump’s unconstitutional attempt to change the rules for federal elections. In response to many of these rulings, the president has resisted compliance and waged intimidation campaigns targeting the judges responsible.
In light of all this, the House bill seems squarely and unacceptably focused on shielding the Trump administration from accountability when it breaks the law.
To make matters worse, the new rule would be so broad that it could allow any government actor to escape being held accountable for violating court rulings. It would also apply to court orders and injunctions issued before the law takes effect. This would render thousands of prior orders across the country immediately unenforceable through contempt proceedings, no matter how the public has already relied on them.
This provision cannot be allowed to stand.
No government official, including the president, should be able to simply ignore court rulings that find their actions illegal or unconstitutional. The rule of law and our democracy itself depend on it.
A Flood of False Information in Elections
The second problematic provision — found within Section 43201(c) of the House reconciliation bill — would impose a 10-year ban on the enforcement of all state and local laws that regulate artificial intelligence (AI), including rules for AI’s use in political campaigns and elections.
Currently, more than 20 states have already enacted laws to address election misinformation and manipulation made easy by new AI tools. These laws are meant to address real challenges for our democracy, like fake content that misleads voters about the candidates or issues on their ballot.
As the technology develops, the public has already seen how AI can be used to depict events that never actually happened, discourage participation in elections, and even create false admissions of election interference.
To protect voters from these harms, CLC and others have called on Congress to pass strong legislation regulating AI’s use in our democratic process. However, Congress has so far failed to act.
In that void, states across the country have stepped up and enacted safeguards, such as prohibiting AI from being used to intentionally deceive voters and requiring disclaimers that inform the public when election ads use content manipulated or generated with AI.
If the House reconciliation package is allowed to override these state laws, Congress will have not only failed in its own duty to regulate AI but actively prevented other lawmakers from protecting their constituents.
Simply put, a 10-year ban on enforcing AI laws across the country could mean a decade of false information that undermines voters’ right to make informed decisions. It would be more than misguided, and outright dangerous for the future of truth and trust in our elections.
American democracy is already facing unprecedented challenges. The rule of law is under attack, while public confidence in our elected leaders and government institutions continues to falter. If Congress enacts these two provisions buried in the House budget bill, the situation will only get worse.
For these reasons, CLC strongly urges the Senate to remove these policies as it considers the legislation or vote NO on the entire package should they remain. Support our work as we continue to fight to protect the rule of law and our democracy.
