Grassroots North Shore Event, Plymouth Church, April 6, 2025:
The Rule of Law in a Time of Challenge for America — Are There Limits to Trump’s Presidential Power?
James L. Santelle, Former US Attorney, Eastern District of Wisconsin [email protected]; (414) 520-2325
The New Domestic Order
On February 18, 2025, President Trump established a “new domestic order,” akin to those announced by French King Louis XIV (“L’Etat, C’est Moi”) and English Kings James I and Charles I (“We are the authors and maker of the laws, not ruled by the laws”), declaring:
“No employee of the executive branch acting in their official capacity may advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the President or the Attorney General’s opinion on a matter of law, including but not limited to the issuance of regulations, guidance, and positions advanced in litigation without permission.”
This unprecedented affirmation in the 238-year history of the United States of America was almost certainly predicated on the equally catastrophic and Rule of Law-altering ruling by the United States Supreme Court on July 1, 2024. In United States v. Donald Trump, the High Court announced prosecution immunities of a President for crimes committed in office and, even more importantly, re-described the Executive Branch itself in a manner that upended and reversed the visions of our Founding Fathers.
In the past 76 days, the President has issued nearly 100 executive orders, policy memorandums, and other statements of government position in the areas of constitutional interpretation (14th Amendment), executive structure (Department of Education), military personnel (transgender troops ban), foreign support (United States Agency for International Development/USAID), domestic funding (various non-profit entities), global health (World Health Organization), climate change (Paris Accords), civil rights (Department of Justice), trade tariffs (Canada, Mexico, and China), and legal representation (“Big Law” restrictions), among many others.
The Remaining Guardrails of the American Federal Judiciary
President Trump’s directives have prompted many civil lawsuits, most challenging the constitutional authority, statutory predicates, and legal legitimacy of the President’s actions. An incomplete but representative sampling of recent judicial actions by federal judges nationwide follows:
IMPORTANT COURT ACTIONS RESPONSIVE TO TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDERS
2/6/2025: District Judge John Coughenour (Western Washington) blocked an early executive order that would have removed citizenship rights from certain people born in the United States.
2/10/2025: Federal Court blocks President Trump/s Executive order that seeks to strip certain babies born in the United States of the right to US Citizenship.
3/5/2025: The Supreme Court rejected an emergency request from President Trump to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid, after District Judge Amir Ali (District of Columbia) issued a temporary order prohibiting Administration officials from ending or pausing payments of monies.
3/5/2025: District Judge John McConnell (Rhode Island) blocked the President’s freeze of domestic funding to 22 states and the District of Columbia, finding that the Administration overstepped in attempting to stop agencies from using monies properly appropriated by the legislature, vested with primary responsibility for budget and fiscal decisions.
3/6/2025: District Judge Beryl Howell (District of Columbia) reversed the firing of a member of the National Labor Relations Board, affirming that “an American president is not a king”; the Court concluded that the attempt to terminate the agency chair “was a blatant violation of the law.”
3/18/2025: District Judge Theodore Chuang (Maryland) determined that Elon Musk and his team had violated the Constitution “in multiple ways” by shuttering the USAID without proper appointment by the President and thus an illegal exercise of executive power.
3/18/205: District Judge Ana Ryes (District of Columbia) found that the prohibition against transgender people serving in the United States Military “targets a vulnerable group in violation of the Fifth Amendment” and so ordered the re-instatement of those discharged by the Pentagon.
3/23/2025: District Judge John McConnell issued an injunction on behalf of 23 states that sued the federal government after the White House moved to pause aid to states, ruling that the move “fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government.”
3/24/2025: Appeals Court Judge Patricia Millet (District of Columbia) opined in oral argument that the Administration had failed to afford some 200 Venezuelan immigrants due process before deporting them and that the President’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act was likely unlawful.
4/3/2025: District Judge Mary McElroy (Rhode Island) barred the Health & Human Services Department from terminating public health funds allocated to the states for medical infrastructures.
What are We to Do?
- Communicate, clearly and often, to your local, state, and national elected leaders that you disagree with and oppose particular actions and events - phone calls and letters are most effective.
- Support the many lawsuits and court challenges that oppose unlawful and unconstitutional behavior in whatever ways you are able (financially, in public/media advocacy, and/or in verbal engagements with family and friends).
- Advocate for definitive, immediate action by the United States Congress, including the introduction and passage of legislation specifically designed to ensure the checks and balance of government and the separation of the powers among the branches.
- Identify and support elected and appointed officials whose actions are consistent with traditional, representative government. Do the same for units of local, state, and federal government that remain working actively and effectively to serve the true interests of the nation.
- Encourage private industry and businesses to act responsibly (even if at their own economic peril) to resist various anti-democratic policies and destructive policies.
- Establish boards of inquiry, and committees of interest to investigate, identify, and reveal harms to our democracy and to propose practical, immediate responsive actions.
- Gather and protest publicly and aggressively (but non-violently), directing those demonstrations at the incumbents of government offices and to the larger populations of our county.
- Consider a general regional or national strike to convey to those same leaders—and to the world—the abiding commitment of the people of the United States to the Rule of Law, the delivery of justice, and the responsible conduct of government.
- KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING – this link goes to a site that tracks legal challenges to Trump
Administrative actions:
Showing 1 reaction