By Kim Wehle
Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
Since Donald Trump took office on January 20, a lot of people have been asking whether the United States is in a “constitutional crisis.” Reviews are mixed. Some (myself included) answer with an obvious “yes.” Others more optimistically say “not yet,” but we could be at some point in the future: If Trump one day defies a Supreme Court order, the argument goes, then America will have crossed the line. Until then, we must simply wait with bated breath and see what the Court does. If it sides with the rule of law, the question then becomes whether Trump decides to respect the High Court’s authority to say what the law is – a power it effectively gave itself in the landmark 1803 decision in Marbury v. Madison.
This view is misguided, if not naïve. The country doesn’t need the Supreme Court to declare that the Constitution is itself a valid law. It was ratified as such by nine of 13 states on June 21, 1788.
Although the definition of “constitutional crisis” is not written in stone, it’s not hard to conjure one up. The framers aimed to throw off the yoke of a bullying monarch. The concentration of power in one branch with no operative checks on abuses of power, along with unprecedented intrusions into basic rights like freedom of speech, easily fits the bill.
In just over a month, Trump has been torching federal agencies created by Congress; abruptly firing government institutional watchdogs and tens of thousands of federal employees on quixotic grounds; ignoring congressional spending mandates; pulling security clearances for private lawyers representing his perceived “enemies”; threatening – and starting the deportation process for international students critical of US policy toward Palestinians in Gaza; and empowering a billionaire to abolish agencies and rummage through Americans’ personal data without any evident legal authorization, transparency or oversight.
But perhaps most telling – and dangerous – is the administration’s response to the judge in the case against the deportation of more than a hundred Venezuelans under the wartime authority (which is likely unconstitutional) Trump invoked just over a week ago to expel noncitizens without due process. Not only does it appear the administration may have defied US District Judge Judge James Boasberg’s order to turn around the planes transferring the migrants to an El Salvador prison, but Trump’s Justice Department has repeatedly stonewalled his attempts to get more information about the planes and the migrants on them.
What’s particularly disturbing is that Trump, shadow president Elon Musk, and their allies have repeatedly blasted Boasberg and called for his impeachment – attacks so egregious that Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare rebuke of the president, saying: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
Congress Ceded Power
Earlier this month, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut delivered a jarring speech tightly summarizing the “stunning rampage of open, public corruption” that Trump has also unleashed, including the launching of his personal “meme coin” token that has enabled what Murphy called a “disgusting” pay-to-play spigot for foreign oligarchs, billionaires, and corporations seeking federal influence.
The GOP-led Congress has not only been complacent, but it has also cynically encouraged these transgressions – going so far as to introduce articles of impeachment (at, as mentioned above, Elon Musk’s apparent direction) against federal judges who dare to declare Trump’s actions illegal. The legislative branch of government is no longer functioning as a check on the presidency.
Others are holding their breath for the 2026 midterms, hoping that Democrats will sweep at least one house of Congress. This, again, is naïve. Bear in mind that Democrats held the Senate for the last four years, yet the Judiciary Committee failed to take seriously the glaring threat to democracy posed by the ethical and financial conflicts of interest on the part of Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Last December, Senate Democrats managed to issue a feckless 95-page report on this subject – after Republicans had already won back that chamber in November. Now that things have gotten far worse, the Democratic Party can hardly be expected to save democracy, either.
Which leaves the federal courts.
The Court Gave Trump a Powerful Gift..
