"Judges have no right to control the executive branch", wrote US Vice President J.D. Vance in early February. The reason was that a federal judge blocked Elon Musk's access to Treasury Department documents. Elon Musk called for the judge's impeachment.
In the following weeks, tensions between the judiciary and the executive branch in Washington continued to rise. Courts blocked administration moves that they said were illegal, President Trump and his entourage tried to ignore court decisions, attacked specific judges and called for their removal. The latest such case reached the Supreme Court and set a precedent, and in the US there is increasingly talk of a constitutional crisis.
Conservative judges vote against Trump's decisions
It all started with Donald Trump's decision to invoke a 1798 law to deport Venezuelans whom his administration suspects of being members of a criminal gang. District Judge James Boasberg ordered on Saturday to stop their deportation by plane to El Salvador until the court determines whether this is legal. The Trump administration did not comply with the decision, and the president attacked Boasberg with an aggressive message on social media, in which he called him a "radical left-wing lunatic judge, troublemaker and agitator" and called for his impeachment.
The attack prompted a response from Chief Justice John Roberts. "For more than two centuries, it has been the established rule that impeachment is not an appropriate response to a judicial decision. The normal appeals process exists for that purpose," Roberts wrote.
Although appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, Roberts is not the first to take a position opposing Trump's policies. Recently, along with another conservative judge, Amy Coney Barrett, who was appointed during Trump's first term, Roberts voted to uphold a district judge's decision that ordered the administration to unfreeze nearly $2 billion in aid. dollars from the closed USAID agency, which must be paid for work already done.
Do Musk and Trump's decisions contradict the Constitution?
Musk's decisions about USAID also face more serious legal problems. According to a decision by another district judge - Theodore Chuang of Maryland - the closure of the agency by Musk and the DOGE unit he leads is likely contrary to the US Constitution. The problem is that Musk, who is not confirmed by the Senate and does not hold an official position, cannot close an agency created by Congress without its permission. Judge Chuang agrees with former USAID employees who are challenging the federal government's decision to close the agency in court. The judge ordered Musk's team to restore access to the emails of all USAID employees and prohibited the DOGE team from engaging in any other work "related to the suspension of USAID's work."
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is also suing the Trump administration over its decision to cut off funding to the media outlet, as it was approved by Congress. Such a move "violates federal laws, including the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress exclusive authority over federal spending," the media outlet argues.
A Trump decision in another case that has attracted significant media attention has also so far failed in court. A federal judge has temporarily suspended the president's order to exclude transgender people from the military. It violates the constitutional requirement that all people be treated equally under the law, Judge Ana Reyes said in favor of a lawsuit filed by six transgender people who are active duty in the military and two others who want to join. Trump's order has been suspended until March 21. The administration, however, can appeal to a higher court.
"This leads us to a completely different kind of constitutional order"
More and more lawyers, politicians and human rights activists are drawing attention to the fact that the administration of the American president is testing the limits of the separation of powers, trying to ignore some of the powers of Congress and the judiciary.
A more serious aspect is missing from the reaction of Chief Justice Roberts to the Boasberg case, writes David Graham in the "Atlantic". While the judge condemns the rhetoric and attacks against his colleague, he does not address the larger problem - the attempts of the Trump administration to ignore court orders.
The case of deportations and detentions of people — including those with legal status — illustrates this. “If someone is detained or removed (from the country) after the administration claims that it can do so without judicial review or due process, the president is asserting dictatorial power, and ‘constitutional crisis’ doesn’t even describe the gravity of the situation,” Columbia University law professor Jamal Green told the New York Times.
“I think it’s more useful to say that this is leading us to a very different kind of constitutional order, one that is no longer characterized by laws that constrain officials and that can be enforced,” said Aziz Hook of the University of Chicago. “The law, in other words, becomes a tool for harming enemies, not for constraining those in power. "This is a very different constitutional order than we've had for a long time," the law professor added.
In recent weeks, judges have blocked Trump's attempts to limit the constitutional right to citizenship for children born in the United States, his efforts to deprive federal funding of medical facilities that provide care for transgender people, his firing of members of bodies that review labor complaints, his attempt to freeze the admission of refugees, as well as his restrictions on funding for individual institutions and the firing of federal employees. Most of these decisions have been met with criticism and attacks from Trump and his administration, including Elon Musk and J.D. Vance.
The attempts by courts to stop Musk's actions are part of an "increasingly sinister confrontation between the Trump White House and the other two constitutional branches," summarizes "Politico". The American system of checks and balances is facing severe tests.
Author: Alexander Detev