President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on January 20, 2025.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on January 20, 2025.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The Trump administration has issued more than 50 executive actions, since the 47th president returned to office three weeks ago. This has opened the door to a flood of legal challenges — there are dozens of cases challenging the White House’s actions and judges all over the country have found that the White House likely acted illegally.
There are rulings that block the dismantling of USAID, the administration’s freeze on federal grants and more:
- On immigration, several judges have blocked Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship.
- On the federal workforce, a judge blocked the offer encouraging government employees to resign.
- On transgender rights, a judge blocked the Trump administration from moving trans women to federal prisons for men.
As the challenges, and the rulings, continue to pour in — Trump’s team is punching back:
- After a judge blocked Elon Musk’s DOGE team from accessing personal data and other Treasury department systems, Musk referred to him as “a corrupt judge protecting corruption” and called for his impeachment.
- Vice President JD Vance made the controversial claim on Sunday that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
- On Monday, in an interview with radio host Mark Levin, President Trump criticized judges for wanting to “tell everybody how to run the country.” Adding that “judges should be ruling. They shouldn’t be dictating what you’re supposed to be doing and why is someone saying you’re not allowed to.”
These comments suggest that Trump’s circle may be willing to ignore court orders and defy judicial authority — that authority is enshrined in article three of the U.S. constitution.
What power does the judicial branch have if the executive branch simply refuses to comply?
Is the U.S. facing a constitutional crisis?
Checks and balances.
Amanda Frost is a Law Professor at the University of Virginia Law. She says a constitutional crisis occurs when one branch of government, usually the executive, “blatantly, flagrantly and regularly exceeds its constitutional authority — and the other branches are either unable or unwilling to stop it.”
Frost says the first half of her definition is already happening, and that it’s clear President Trump has gone beyond the powers of the executive branch. She points to him trying to usurp Congress’ “power of the purse” or trying to put an end to birthright citizenship as examples.
“So I am deeply concerned, as I think every American should be, about the way in which executive power is being abused, misused and overstepping the bounds of the authority,” Frost says. “But I will say that as of today, at this moment, the executive branch has not taken the position that it can violate court orders or that it does not need to comply with court orders. So as long as we remain in a system in which the executive follows, or at least states that it has to follow what a court says, I have hope that the system will hold.”
She says the way our system is intended to work is that each of the three branches maybe pushes at the edges of its powers — and ideally at that point, the other branches should step in and push back.
Court orders.
So what happens if the executive does turn its back on a legitimate court order? Frost says there are a number of mechanisms or tools courts have to enforce their orders:
“Things like subpoenaing government officials to come and explain themselves if they’re not following orders, holding government officials in contempt or fining individuals. All that said, if at the end of the day, neither political branch nor the people want to see the law enforced, eventually the courts will fail in their efforts to do so. Our system, at the end of the day, relies on the people and elections and the political branches of government to ensure that we remain a nation governed by law.”
A new territory.
On Monday, Judge John McConnell, Jr. wrote that the administration defied a temporary restraining order by continuing to improperly freeze federal funds.
The Trump administration argues that it acted “in good faith” to interpret the scope of the restraining order and has appealed the ruling.
“The response that the Trump administration has given is within the system as we know it,” Frost says. “If they begin blatantly violating court orders and saying they don’t have to follow them, then we’re in new territory.”
She says we are not yet in a constitutional crisis – yet – but we’re “undergoing a constitutional stress test.”
“We have an executive that has usurped the power of Congress and overstepped the boundaries of the office. And the question is, will the courts step up to play their constitutional role in stopping it? And following that, will the executive comply with court orders requiring them to stop taking action?”
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This episode was produced by Elena Burnett and Marc Rivers.
It was edited by Courtney Dorning and Nadia Lancy.
Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.