The frontline of the resistance to President Trump is not the rioters and protesters, nor even the Congressional establishment. Federal judges are leading the fight to cripple Trump’s presidency, overturning legitimate executive actions and effectively invalidating the 2016 election.

Within days of his inauguration, Trump took action to protect Americans from terrorists by restricting travel from seven countries known to contain exceptionally large numbers of terrorists. The restrictions were to be a temporary measure while the government determined how to improve the vetting of potential immigrants. The executive order was based on Federal law giving the President very broad powers to determine who should not be allowed to cross our borders.

Liberals, including some Democratic state Attorneys General, rushed to court and secured an order putting the travel restrictions on hold. They gave the impression that Trump had imposed a ban on Muslim immigration, even though the executive order clearly did no such thing.

Even when the executive order was rewritten to eliminate some of the objections that had been raised, it simply produced a second round of court challenges and injunctions.

Likewise, the President’s effort to overcome the resistance of “sanctuary cities” was quickly challenged and put on hold by a Federal judge. Those cities will continue to obstruct the deportation of illegal aliens, some of whom will commit crimes as serious as murder.

Even when the President signed an executive order to “vigorously enforce Federal law’s robust protections for religious freedom”, it was followed by an immediate lawsuit (not yet decided).

The American Left lost the election. Neither the White House nor Congress will obey them. Only the courts give them the chance to control policy for the next four years.

Much of the problem comes from the fact that Obama, during eight years in the White House, appointed more than one-third of the judges now serving on the thirteen US Appeals Courts. Democratic-appointed judges are a majority on nine of the thirteen, compared to just one when Obama replaced Bush. Confirming judges to the Appeals Courts was the primary reason that Democrats eliminated the filibuster for most presidential appointees, and it paid off for them.

Liberals now have broad geographic options when choosing where to file their lawsuits. They know that, in most cases, the appeal from the district court will be sent to judges sympathetic to the liberal point of view. And in many cases, the Appeals Court may turn out to be the final decisions, since the Supreme Court accepts a very limited number of cases.

The most essential step to solving this problem is for President Trump to fill the 19 vacancies on the Appeals Courts as quickly as possible. He has just recently begun by making five nominations, and more must follow. Ultimately, we also need at least one more reliable conservative on the Supreme Court.

However, there can be no doubt that Democrats will do everything possible, use every parliamentary delay, and resort to any smear in order to keep new judges off the bench.

We know how to overcome this opposition – just the way we did it to put Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. Strong, unceasing grass roots pressure must be aimed at every Senator, especially the establishment Republicans and Democrats from pro-Trump states.

With truth and the Constitution on our side, we can win – if we do the work that leads to victory.