Because we are a nation of rule-followers.
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Constitutional crisis?
Reich thinks that’ll happen if Tramp and Co. defy the SCOTUS.
In our system, judges don’t just “think.” They have the final say, unless their rulings are appealed to the Supreme Court, in which case the high court’s majority has the final final say.
Yesterday afternoon, it became apparent that Trump’s Justice Department shares Homan’s odd view of our judicial system. DOJ lawyers filed papers telling the judge that the administration would not provide any further information about the deportation flights, and that the court should vacate the hearing.
Then, speaking on Fox News, Attorney General Pam Bondi criticized the judge, saying “What he’s done is an intrusion on the president’s authority.”
What’s going on here?
A very dangerous game.
On Sunday night, Trump told reporters that a federal judge in California who ordered the administration to rehire thousands of fired probationary workers was “putting himself in the position of the president of the United States, who was elected by close to 80 million votes.”
Excuse me? In our system of government, courts pass judgment on actions of a president and the executive branch. Courts don’t put themselves in the “position” of a president. They act as the Constitution empowers them to act — as a co-equal branch of government.
If the executive branch doesn’t agree with what a lower-court judge decides, it can appeal to a higher court and ultimately to the Supreme Court.
Trump isn’t the only one to make this unconstitutional claim. In early February, Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, declared that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” It was an odd statement coming from someone who has studied at one of America’s preeminent law schools — and it was logically absurd, since it’s up to judges (and eventually the Supreme Court’s justices) to determine a president’s “legitimate power.”
Let’s be clear. Trump has openly violated numerous laws and constitutional provisions — such as ending birthright citizenship; giving associates of Elon Musk’s government-slashing effort access to a sensitive Treasury Department system; transferring transgender female inmates to male prisons; placing thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development employees on leave; and effectively dismantling USAID and folding it into the State Department.
In response, federal judges have temporarily barred a slew of Trump orders from taking effect.
But not until now has Trump or his regime so blatantly refused to follow a judge’s order.
What happens when this or another lower-court ruling goes to the Supreme Court, and the high court rules against Trump?
Vance has said that if this occurs, Trump should “stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say, ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”
Never mind that the quote attributed to Jackson is, as one scholar has noted, “probably apocryphal.” It’s heard more and more from Trump appointees these days, as exemplified by Homan’s remark this morning and this afternoon’s Justice Department filing.
Trump’s appointments in his second term are having the opposite effect of his first-term appointees. In his first term, they restrained him somewhat. Recall that the Justice Department’s top brass threatened to resign en masse if he appointed as attorney general the one assistant attorney general who was prepared to sell his soul to Trump and say the 2020 election was stolen from him.
This time, his appointees are magnifying his worst instincts. Rather than act as guardrails, they are egging Trump on.
Many people wonder if we’re in a “constitutional crisis.” Definitions of that phrase vary considerably, as do opinions about whether we’re in one now.
My worry is that Trump is surrounded by extremist anti-democracy nihilists, including his vice president, who are encouraging him to defy the Supreme Court.
If and when he does, we’ll be in a constitutional crisis that should cause every American to take to the streets.
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I … have mixed feelings; the muskrat needs to be taken off the playing field, but if the magats are buying EVs, then that is good for the environment.
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Welp, Sauron has turned his flaming eyeball our way. 
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He is the grandson of William J. Pulte, founder of home construction giant PulteGroup.
Me, I would’ve put that farther up in that article, mainly because the first thing I wondered about was the guy’s name.
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No mortgages for democrats?
A new savings and loan crash?
Both?
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Musk and Putin implanted a neuralink brain control chip in Trump.
It had to be amazingly small.
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Oblig:
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again
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A prime candidate for some Nazi punch therapy.
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In an asymmetric war that’s one of the main problems.
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He’s always doing that. What a child.
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On the other hand; the Geneva Checklist …
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No other employer would keep a liability like him on the payroll.
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I would love to see Stephen Miller jobless and howling into the void, never to be seen on TV again. Or in jail.
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What happens when this or another lower-court ruling goes to the Supreme Court, and the high court rules against Trump?
Vance has said that if this occurs, Trump should “stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say, ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”
If a judge calls upon the forces of law and order (police) to enforce it, they probably won’t - and even if they would, they might not be able to. But contempt (as I noted earlier) is something judges can expect the forces of law and order to enforce. Some arses need dragging to court and jail.
(Can a President be adjudged by a court to be guilty of contempt of court?)
What happens if law enforcement officers refuse? A judge cannot call on the army, but I bet Trump and Vance would at some point in an escalating dispute. That’s when it would undeniably be a coup. (It is right now of course, but many are wilfully blind to it at present.)
Make Mortgages Great Again
I assume he means for lenders, certainly not for borrowers.
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Last year, the Supreme Court granted Trump broad, presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for “official” acts. They now have no way to enforce their orders against Trump. These are clearly official acts. They’re illegal, but official. They can’t hold him in contempt. Not legally, anyway.
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