In January, the Republican Party will assume control of the entire federal government. The Supreme Court, currently at a four-to-four impasse between conservatives and liberals, will soon tilt in the conservatives’ favor.

Donald Trump’s judiciary will not reverse the erosion of civil liberties, the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, or the militarization of police forces. His potential nominees to the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary will not be friendly to what’s left of the welfare state, the regulatory state, or the anti-discrimination state. Federal law and the federal government will be even more dramatically weaponized against people of color, the poor, and the exploited — much as American power has already been weaponized against millions around the world.

But although Trump’s judiciary will undoubtedly be dangerous, it would be a mistake to assume their decisions will differ from existing conservative jurisprudence — or that mounting an opposition primarily through the courts will prove an effective strategy.