Vice President J.D. Vance signaled that President Donald Trump's administration is poised to ignore a judicial ruling, according to experts.
Raw Story reported on Saturday that legal analysts looking at Elon Musk's social media activity predicted that he would at least consider denying a major court order that limited his access to Treasury Department data.
The next day, Vance seemed to indicate that same plan, according to attorneys. The V.P. said in part, "Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power."
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This led to the Co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, Elizabeth Goitein, saying, "The Trump administration seems to be gearing up to defy a court order, with JD Vance tweeting this morning: 'Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.'"
"The battle lines for our democracy have been drawn," she added. "As anyone who has had an introductory civics class knows, if a president disagrees with a court order, the remedy is to appeal. There’s a reason Trump & co. don’t like that option: they know their actions are illegal and many will be rejected even by Trump’s own SCOTUS justices."
In her conclusion, Goitein said, "Ultimately, SCOTUS will decide whether the administration’s actions reflect 'legitimate executive power.'"
"If the Trump team ignores the courts, any remaining doubt will be gone: they are trying to reverse the revolution that overthrew King George and gave birth to democracy," she added.
CNN anchor Jim Sciutto shared that commentary, and added, "Please pay attention to this."
Former Department of Justice white-collar crime prosecutor Ankush Khardori appeared on MSNBC on Sunday, where he was also asked about the Vance comment.
"This is disturbing," he said on the weekend show.
Editor Nathan J Robinson said, "They didn't teach us much law at Yale Law School but one thing I do remember is that actually when the executive branch violates the law, the judiciary is fully entitled (and obligated) to command the executive branch to behave legally."
