'It's a mess': DC courts on brink of collapse as Trump floods them with arrests
Source: Raw Story
August 27, 2025 6:20PM ET
President Donald Trump's federal takeover of D.C. has the local courts stretched to breaking point, CNN reported on Wednesday.
Trump's D.C. U.S. Attorney, former Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro, "has encouraged its prosecutors to bring more cases to federal court with the most serious charges they can pursue. Defense attorneys across the city believe weaker cases are now being brought into the system as smaller infractions are bumped up to more serious charges," reported Katelyn Polantz, Marshall Cohen, Holmes Lybrand, and Casey Gannon.
Its a real mess right now, AJ Kramer, the federal public defender for DC, told CNN of the overwhelmed judicial process.
Complicating the issue, Trump's prosecutors have been instructed to leave as many people in jail pending trial as possible, "despite a longstanding approach of courts keeping people accused of non-violent or petty crimes out of jail unless theyre convicted" a move further cemented by Trump's order instructing D.C. courts to end cashless bail policies.
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/trump-courts-2673933739/

bucolic_frolic
(52,405 posts)Public won't be happy with Trump's fossilized world.
maxsolomon
(37,356 posts)Or, in the case of my Dad, won't notice.
Danascot
(5,115 posts)but she can destroy a box of wine.
orangecrush
(26,715 posts)
IronLionZion
(49,903 posts)
twodogsbarking
(15,775 posts)Lonestarblue
(12,923 posts)What a despicable administration we haveinflicting cruelty for the fun of it.
Martin Eden
(14,887 posts)They don't care if courts and attorneys are needlessly overburdened. They don't care if defendants are separated from their families and/or lose their jobs due to incarceration for petty non-violent crimes.
They don't really care about public safety. If they did, they would increase funding for local law enforcement instead of cutting it, which they did.
If the health and safety of the American people was a priority, they wouldn't put a deranged crackpot in charge of HHS or destroy FEMA while disasters from catastrophic climate change are on the rise.
We all know what their #1 priority is:
Carry out the dictates of Mad King Donald in an authoritarian consolidation of power intended to last far beyond his reign.
ananda
(33,157 posts)I think we all know what that means.
Volaris
(11,045 posts)They can (to the best of my knowledge) strike a 'gentlemens agreement' amongst themselves as professionals that says 'anybody that comes in here on 'Trumped-up', nonsense charges, we're simply going to ROR with cash bail set at 1 dollar, or night-court style 'time served, 50 dollar fine', and essentially tell these clowns go fuck yourselves with this nonsense, and go ahead and scream all you want, WE run our own courtrooms, not DA Boxwine.
Farmer-Rick
(12,076 posts)To uphold the US Constitution. But that's probably just too hard for a corrupted broken legal system to do.
When you are ruled by the whims of a psycho, dementia riddled, pedo these things happen. It will get worse.
Volaris
(11,045 posts)And just tell the American people that as long as trump is non-compliant with any standing court order, we're going to decline to hear any litigation he brings to us..universally, the appeals court decisions can stand and who cares if he throws a fit as there isn't anything he can do about it...we have constitutional authority to run our show the way we want, and that's the end of it.
Mind you, that would take Roberts actually caring about the legacy of the court MORE than he cares about the perception of that legacy, and we're nowhere close to that yet.
58Sunliner
(6,071 posts)Joinfortmill
(18,924 posts)GreenWave
(11,606 posts)FakeNoose
(38,640 posts)Somebody please step in and stop this! Chump is doing it on purpose ... for obvious reasons.
The federal courts should only hear cases with a national (or regional) importance. Chump is treating them like a traffic court.
Wounded Bear
(62,961 posts)This will be a distinction when he moves into Baltimore and Chicago, which he is planning, but in DC not so much.
Tommy Carcetti
(44,205 posts)...was akin to them being "hostages" or "political prisoners" and constituted "torture."
These people don't have an authentic bone in their bodies.
chouchou
(2,346 posts)
Old Crank
(6,220 posts)Have been starving DC from the use of their own generated tax funds while forcing them to not hire cops and judges.
THE GOP are horrible people.
Wounded Bear
(62,961 posts)republianmushroom
(21,375 posts)Don't you just love it.
Owens
(561 posts)"Defense attorneys across the city believe weaker cases are now being brought into the system as smaller infractions are bumped up to more serious charges,...." This sounds illegal and I have to wonder what jails they are being sent to and who owns those jails?
ancianita
(41,832 posts)8 confirmed under Obama
6 under Clinton
5 under Biden
4 under GW Bush
4 under Trump
2 under Reagan
I can't believe they're at a breaking point and can't handle what the felon's henchmen are throwing at them.
BumRushDaShow
(160,177 posts)separate from the one used for many of the J6 prosecutions. Apparently the run-of-the-mill "local" civil/criminal cases are handled by the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (most likely crimes that do NOT involve "federal property" or "federal statutes" that apply nationally).
They apparently "separated them out" through legislation back in 1970 -
S.2601 - District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970
This has a good description of what is going on (seems like it's how they have their "D.C. Metro Police" which is different from the "D.C. Capitol Police" -
By Michael Milov-Cordoba Published: September 22, 2023 Last Updated: May 13, 2024
(snip)
What courts make up the DC court system?
In 1970, Congress passed the District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act, which established a local DC court system. Today, DC has a high appellate court called the DC Court of Appeals, which consists of a chief judge and eight associate judges, and a trial court called the Superior Court of DC, which has several divisions, including civil, criminal, domestic violence, family social services, probate, special operations, and tax.
Under DCs Home Rule Act, the superior court is a trial court with jurisdiction over any civil action or other matter brought in the district, as well as all criminal cases under laws that apply exclusively to the district. The DC Court of Appeals has jurisdiction over appeals from the superior court; certain decisions made by DCs agencies, boards, and commissions; and legal questions about DC law certified by federal and state appellate courts.
Although the DC courts share many similarities with state courts, federal law does not uniformly define state court to include them. As a result, courts are sometimes required to determine whether an undefined reference to state courts includes the DC courts. This ambiguity can lead to inconsistent results. For example, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuits recent decision in Eldridge v. Howard created a circuit split as to whether a DC trial court was a state court for purposes of federal habeas corpus law, affecting whether certain jurisdictional requirements must be met before a court grants relief.
(snip)
District of Columbia Courts
ancianita
(41,832 posts)We may differ in wording, I think, but not in the spirit of the court structure. Not a lawyer, obviously, but my understanding is that there are magistrates, federal district courts and circuit courts. Maybe I misunderstand and could be wrong, but as I was following Jan 6 reports, I read these judges' names with the District Court of DC. Back when I was doing summations of events around Trump's cases handled by AG Garland and SC Jack Smith, I'd listed these judges. Am I wrong about them and the Jan 6 cases? Because many of their names kept coming up on the Litigation Tracker site for Jan 6, and courtlistener and news reports.
Sure, courts are underfunded, understaffed, and need more judgeships, and sure, lawyers might feel swamped, but to me the numbers just don't support the claim that judges and dockets are being any more burdened now by the felon's attempts to bury them.
Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding.
BumRushDaShow
(160,177 posts)Look here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superior_Court_of_the_District_of_Columbia
(there are also 13 vacancies in this court)
The court you are looking at deals with what are "national" type federal cases dealing with federal statutes. The above that I linked to deals with the "local" stuff because D.C. DOES have their "own local laws and ordinances". E.g., assaults, homicides, gun violations, robberies, small claims, car accidents, nuisance complaints, landlord/tenant issues, divorces, etc.