Trump said to be entering 'choppy legal waters' with unexpected source of pushback

Donald Trump is expected to enter the White House with a Republican House and Senate, as well as a Supreme Court including several jurists he himself appointed, but there is still an unexpected source of pushback that could hamper some of his efforts, according to some legal experts.

Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election, leading many observers to question whether the former president and now president-elect will be able to push through some of his more controversial policies.

Trump’s "ambitious agenda could face pushback from an institution he has done much to shape: the Supreme Court," according to Lawrence Hurley, Senior Supreme Court Reporter for NBC.

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"With a 6-3 conservative majority including three Trump appointees, the court has spent the last few years buffeted by criticism from the left," Hurley wrote. "But if the justices stick true to their stated jurisprudential principles, the new administration could end up on the losing side at least some of the time, legal experts say."

Hurley went on to quote John Malcolm, a lawyer at the Trump-allied Heritage Foundation.

“I think if President Trump’s executive agencies tried to stretch the law beyond the breaking point in the same kind of way that the Biden administration has done then, yes, the courts will be a check on that power,” Malcolm said.

Hurley further pointed out that Trump lost "several high-profile cases in his first term, including over his attempt to wind down the program that protects young immigrants known as 'Dreamers' from deportations and a plan to add a citizenship question to the census."

"The Trump administration also suffered a big loss when in 2020 the court ruled 6-3 to extend workplace discrimination protections to LGBTQ employees, a decision that angered conservatives," he added.

While Trump is certain to get some deference on certain issues, on others, such as environmental regulation, "efforts to deregulate more than laws allow for could be difficult to defend," according to the report.

"One issue where Trump would almost certainly enter choppy legal waters is his plan to end birthright citizenship, a right enshrined in the Constitution," Hurley wrote.

Read the report here.