Ghetto imagesBBC News
In the first weeks of his second term, President Donald Trump did not waste time bending his political muscle. This is clear.
Ever since he took office in January, he has ordered the suspension of all new asylum requests, cancels the resettlement of refugees, frozen government hiring and expenses, struck agencies created by Congress, has moved to ban the transitional service for teenagers and suggest a buy -off deal For hundreds of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands,
The whirl of unilateral actions on the promises of his campaign pushed the boundaries of presidential power – and provoked legal challenges from Democrats, Trade Unions and Legal Groups.
So far, the federal courts have been the only essential obstacles to Trump's agenda, as the judges temporarily terminated some of his most controversial actions, including an offer to terminate automatic citizenship for anyone born in the US -law established by the 14th amendment of the US Constitution.
But Trump is pressing – and seems to be focused on a reflection with the judiciary, which can eventually end in the highest court in the ground. This week Judge from Rod Island stated that the Trump administration was Clearly and openly refuting his court order to destroy billions in federal meansS The White House replied, saying that “every action” that the president has taken is “completely legal.”
If Trump's orders reach the US Supreme Court, six of the nine judges there – including three, appointed by Trump in his first term – are conservative. It was precisely last term that the court issued a decision holding Trump and all future presidents, to a large extent immunized by the prosecution for official action while in service.
At that time, it was a remarkable expansion of presidential power. But some observers suggest that Trump's latest moves may be part of the strategy for expanding his powers even more.
The transfer of Trump to freeze hundreds of billions of dollars to federal grants and to dismantle the United States Agency for International Assistance (USAID), to their face, running to the US government inspection and balance sheets.
Congress, not the White House, keeps the power to control federal costs and taxation – what is known as the “bag power”. Legislators have also established USAID and have been filed lawsuits, arguing that Trump has no legal powers to dismantle him and refuse to spend funds allocated by Congress.
But if the higher courts agree to maintain some of its extensive enforcement actions, it can strengthen its ability to transform the government and make changes to politics without the help of Congress.
And even if the courts decide against the president, says Ilia Shapiro, a constitutional expert at Manhattan Institute, these legal defeats can be politically profitable.
“There may be political benefits of being challenged in court and then even losing in court, because then you can run against judges and make political hay from it.”
However, there is another scenario. Trump could simply refuse to comply with any court who tries to stop his exercise of unlimited presidential rule.
In Oval Office's comments on Tuesday, the president hinted that this could be an option in his usually inclined way.
“We want to remove corruption,” Trump said. “And it seems hard to believe that a judge could say we don't want to do it.”
“Maybe we should look at the judges,” he continued. “I think this is a very serious violation.”
On Sunday, Trump's Vice President, JD Vance, was even dumb.
“Judges are not allowed to control the legal power of the executive branch,” he published on the social media website X. This opinion was similar to a Vance, expressed in a podcast in 2021 when he said that if Trump returned to power , he must refuse to comply with any court order, which prevented him from dismissing federal workers.
However, the direct rebuttal of the judgment would be reduced against the centuries of US history and would represent the introductory fights in a constitutional crisis that confronts the President against the branch of the government intended to establish and interpret the law on Earth.
“My reading is that President Trump tests the external boundaries of what can be able to get out, doing many things that are rude to the law and maybe some things that are closer to the line,” said Fred Smith , Fred Smith, Fred Smith, Professor at the University Emori University School.
“They violate many norms,” added D -Smith for the emerging Trump administration. “Why he does this, only he knows completely. But he does it.”
Ghetto imagesSo far, Trump and his allies have made aggressive comments about adverse court decisions in the public and in legal documents, but they are yet to be sanctioned for disobedience to court. When Trump was the purpose of the many prosecutor's offices in the last four years, he often calls into question the legitimacy of the presiding judges, but his lawyers in the courtroom have adhered to the law and legal procedures.
The Federal Judge in Rod Island, who put a temporary detention on another Trump order to freeze some federal expenses, warned in court documents on Monday that the administration violated his temporary restraining order, but stopped finding them contempt.
The conservative legal scientist Ed Wilan wrote to X that it would be “extremely serious” to the Trump administration to oppose a federal court.
“I am open to the argument that really exceptional circumstances (creating a wild hypothetical) can justify the challenge,” writes Wilan. “But in our constitutional system, there must be a prevailing presumption in favor of compliance with the executive industry with the orders of the Federal Court.”
If Trump does not obey and therefore delegitimized, the courts, the decision may return to bite him when the president comes to see his own legal program, some legal experts say. Democratic countries such as California, for example, may tend to ignore the White House directives and the federal laws they dislike – and Trump will be heavily pressed to use the courts to bring them to the heel.
“If the executive has decided that it will obey some court orders, but not others, it will find that it will not receive court orders it wishes to obey,” says Philip Bobit, a constitutional scientist at the University of Law Faculty Colombia. “I just don't think they thought it.”
When Donald Trump stopped the Oval Cabinet to his liking in January, he reinstated a portrait of President Andrew Jackson, who turned out to be on the wall against the decisive desk in his first term.
The seventh US president remembers a critical moment of challenging the United States Supreme Court. When the judges resolved a dispute between the Georgia state and the Cherokee Indian governments in 1832, Jackson does not seem to be interested in following her direction.
It is alleged that Jackson said the decision of the Chief Judge: “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him impose it!”
Nearly 200 years later, Trump himself ended up in his own clash course with America's judicial system.