Using just two examples from Donald Trump's tsunami of executive orders since assuming office this week, a law professor suggested that both are flagrant violations of federal law and that tremendous damage will be done before the courts can unwind them.
In a column for the Bulwark, University of Baltimore Law School Professor Kim Wehle wrote that a complicit Supreme Court and an equally complicit GOP-controlled Congress have handed the newly-elected president the ability to do as he pleases with no restraints placed upon him.
In a grim opening, she wrote, "One thing is already clear, though: Trump is blatantly violating established federal law, knowing that there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Trump is the law now."
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With that out of the way she pointed to the president's “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” executive order aimed at subverting birthright citizenship as currently dictated in the Constitution.
Wehle wrote, "People are understandably wondering what the 6–3 Trump-friendly Supreme Court majority might do if it gets the case," before cautioning, "The implications for the people this will affect are grim—especially the babies born with uncertain citizenship status—and the implications for our constitutional system are troubling in the extreme."
Taking up Trump's decision to step in and simply put aside the Supreme Court's unanimous ruling on divestiture of TikTok, she explained that his decision to ignore the court is "breathtaking."
Pointing out "In more 'normal' times, Trump might have directed his attorney general to decline to execute the law. That arguably would fall within the president’s prerogative," she explained, "This time, Trump came out of the gate declaring himself above Congress and the Supreme Court."
Taken together, she summarized, "It’s clear from this and his other executive orders that he and his team feel sure there are zero remaining guardrails or levers of accountability anywhere within our system of government. By the time any holdouts for the rule of law catch up to him, it will be way too late."
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