CNN legal analyst Elie Honig on Monday warned that Vice President J.D. Vance is nudging the United States toward total lawlessness with his suggestions that judges have no power to rule against the executive branch.
While discussing Vance's weekend attacks on judges who have shot down Trump administration policies, Honig argued that the vice president was heading into uncharted territory with respect to the rule of law.
J.D. Vance said over the weekend that a judge who halted Elon Musk from accessing Treasury records was overstepping their authority. "Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power," he posted on social media.
"J.D. Vance is really stepping very close to dangerous ground with that statement and he knows it," he said. "The notion that the courts cannot stop the executive from doing what he wants, the notion that the executive may have the option of defying the courts, that is completely beyond even what the most extreme right-wing conservative theory in favor of broad executive power has ever argued.
"Now, look, there is a very broad view of executive power, sometimes it's called the unitary executive theory, which holds essentially that the president is all-powerful within the executive branch. But even proponents of that theory do not say that the president is free to disregard an order of the court. If that were to happen, that is a line in the sand that has not been crossed."
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Honig also predicted that, were Trump to cross this line, the United States Supreme Court would slap him down hard even though Trump himself had appointed three justices currently serving on it.
"This Supreme Court has generally taken a broad view of executive power but I also think it's a mistake to say, 'Oh... they ruled in favor of Trump on immunity, they're going to do whatever he said.' They have rejected Donald Trump at many key junctures," he said.
"They rejected his election fraud claims. They rejected some of his efforts to stop prosecutors from taking steps against him. They rejected his efforts to resist a subpoena. So I think this Supreme Court will not tolerate if the executive branch crosses that line of defying the courts."
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