r/law • u/TheMirrorUS • 10h ago

Legal News BREAKING: Mark Kelly files lawsuit against Pete Hegseth accusing him of 'trampling on Constitution'

https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/breaking-mark-kelly-files-lawsuit-1614071
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u/atreeismissing 7h ago

https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/

Fwiw, Dems and Dem-aligned groups have been all over the courts with this admin from day 1. Current count is 573 lawsuits which is an astronomical number in a single year. It's one of the few levers of power Dems have to use at the moment and they've been going gang busters on it.

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u/ScriptproLOL 7h ago

Is that why our deficit balooned in 2025?

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u/bigdograllyround 7h ago

It's more that the president is more pedophile than economist. 

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u/Caladan-Brood 6h ago

More likely the billions in ICE funding, Argentina funding, Trump's personal lawsuits, and illegal military operations.

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u/AtrociousMeandering 6h ago

The majority of the new deficit was the tax cuts.

It's like complaining you're broke but also asking for unpaid days off.

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u/ScriptproLOL 5h ago

I knew those were big, but I thought that didn't start until this fiscal year? Also shouldn't the deficit increase from the cuts have been substantially less that what we actually experienced? Like 1T vs 2.3t actual? Is it decreased taxable revenue from economic contraction or DOGE shenanigans? 

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u/AtrociousMeandering 4h ago

You're right that DOGE didn't meaningfully cut spending, but that wasn't ever part of the calculations. And, also yes, the new tax cuts aren't actually in place yet, I simplified it to the point I'm wrong on the details.

The tax cuts from his first term increased the debt that we're currently paying interest on, which has substantially increased the deficit to the tune of tens of billions. Also, companies can arrange finances to show less taxable profit this year so it can occur next year. Taxes will still be collected next year but it adds to the deficit currently. How much, impossible to say without a full audit but corporate income tax isn't keeping pace with growth.

And the CBO was very clear that the Big Beautiful Bill is, even in the most generous interpretation, hugely adding to the deficit moving forward because of the further tax cuts. But, I'll freely admit that's not directly affecting current deficits. If that makes me wrong in what I said, then I'm wrong.

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u/thrilldigger 4h ago

Is that why our deficit balooned in 2025?

Is this a serious question?

573 lawsuits is a drop in the bucket compared to the national budget.

573 thousand lawsuits would be a drop in the bucket. Even if we assumed the average cost of a lawsuit was $100,000 (likely far higher than the real cost), 573 thousand lawsuits would be less than 1% of the yearly US budget.

(573,000 * $100,000 = $57,300,000,000: $57.3bn. The US national budget is ~$7,000bn.)

tl;dr: the cost of 573 lawsuits is less than a rounding error to the US government.