As Courts Block Trump's Unlawful Moves, Musk & Vance Attack Judicial Authority
Judges are increasingly blocking the Trump Admin's abuses of executive power. Meanwhile, J.D. Vance & Elon Musk are fueling fears that Trump may defy court orders—escalating the constitutional crisis.
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The biggest battles over President Trump’s agenda and executive overreach aren’t occurring in the halls of Congress - they’re happening in the courtroom.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE team have been ignoring laws, unilaterally attempting to dismantle agencies, accessing sensitive data, sidelining civil servants, and testing the limits of executive power.
This has been nothing short of an outright power grab, seeking to accomplish the core goal of the modern right-wing movement and Project 2025: to break down the federal bureaucracy and reshape the federal government into a tool of the far-right.
Congress, with the Senate and House in Republican control, has done nothing to check the Trump Administration’s abuses of power. In spite of this administration’s effort to unilaterally seize the power of the purse away from Congress and to shut down congressionally-created agencies, Republican lawmakers have been largely silent or compliant.
While the Legislative Branch fails in its duties to uphold the constitutional principle of separation of powers, the Judicial Branch is stepping up to the plate.
More than 40 lawsuits have been filed challenging the Trump Administration’s actions, and at least eight won injunctions that temporarily blocked key Trump and Musk moves, according to The New York Times’ count.
As these lawsuits continue to pile up, the Trump Administration’s legal setbacks are mounting.
On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer temporarily blocked Elon Musk’s DOGE from accessing Treasury Department payment systems that contain sensitive personal data of Americans. The Trump Administration immediately filed a motion to vacate this injunction - which hasn’t been ruled on yet.
On Monday, a third federal judge issued an injunction blocking Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship. Since Trump took office, federal judges have also temporarily blocked: Trump’s federal funding freeze; Trump and Musk’s plan to place 2,200 USAID employees on leave; Trump and Musk’s federal employee “deferred resignation” program; Trump’s effort to transfer transgender women to male-only prisons; and Trump’s plan to expose the identities of FBI agents who investigated the January 6 insurrection.
The Trump Administration has complied with many of these rulings, but on Monday, it became clear that they’re not entirely in compliance. Politico’s Senior Legal Affairs Reporter Kyle Cheney was the first to report that “a federal judge has determined that the Trump Administration is violating his order lifting the blanket spending freeze on federal grant programs. He is ordering the administration to immediately unfreeze funds, including for NIH and the IRA.”
This ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by 23 Attorneys General accusing the Trump Administration of continuing to freeze federal funds in spite of the court order. Chief US Judge for the District of Rhode Island, John J. McConnell Jr., agreed with the states. Judge McConnell Jr. said in his ruling:
“The States have presented evidence in this motion that the Defendants in some cases have continued to improperly freeze federal funds and refused to resume disbursement of appropriated federal funds.”
We’ll see how the Trump Administration responds. But this violation of a court order on the funding freeze comes amid a new push from right-wing figures for Trump to blatantly defy court orders. Every American should be paying attention to this evolving dynamic.
After U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer blocked DOGE from accessing sensitive Treasury Department payment systems, a growing chorus of right-wing voices on Twitter began to call for the Trump Administration to defy court orders.
Over the weekend, Elon Musk retweeted a post that read, “I don’t like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I’m just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us…”
Elon Musk then sent a post at 2:11 am EST on Sunday proclaiming, “A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!”
Republican Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) also chimed in. Senator Lee called the ruling a “judicial coup,” and Senator Cotton said that Judge Engelmayer “should be forbidden” from hearing another case against the Trump Administration.
President Trump also remarked on the ruling in his pre-Super Bowl interview on Fox News. “I disagree with it 100 percent; I think it’s crazy,” Trump said. The president later told reporters, “No judge should frankly be allowed to make that kind of a decision, it’s a disgrace.”
On Sunday, Vice President J.D. Vance joined the attacks on the federal judiciary, posting on Twitter, “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power.” Elon Musk quote-posted Vance’s comments with American flag emojis.
Vance, who graduated from Yale Law School, knows his claim that judges “aren’t allowed” to review executive power is pure nonsense. Having attended Yale, Vance is very aware of the Supreme Court’s 1803 Marbury v. Madison ruling, which established judicial review and cemented the judiciary’s authority to check the power of the other two branches of government. An administration like Trump’s is precisely why the Founders created our coequal system of checks and balances, designing the judiciary specifically to check this kind of power grab.
These comments from Vance are not surprising. In fact, they echo a sentiment Vance shared in a September 2021 interview. Vance endorsed the Project 2025 plan to purge civil servants and called for the defiance of court orders:
“I think that what Trump should do, like if I was giving him one piece of advice, fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state, replace them with our people… and when the courts stop you, stand before the country, like Andrew Jackson did, and say ‘the Chief Justice has made his ruling now let him enforce it.’”
This expansive view of executive power aligns with the unitary executive theory, which I’ve written about extensively. It’s the theory that Article II of the Constitution renders the president an all-powerful figure above accountability and checks on their power.
The theory can be summed up in President Richard Nixon’s infamous words: “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” Or, in Donald Trump’s more precise words, “Then I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”
As I’ve outlined, the Trump Administration is deliberately pushing the bounds of executive power. They believe the Supreme Court will further expand Trump’s power, as they did in their immunity ruling. But now, Vance and Musk are upping the ante with their attacks on the power of the judiciary itself.
JD Vance, Elon Musk, and some Republican lawmakers could be laying the rhetorical groundwork to potentially defy court orders that block the Trump Administration’s unlawful abuses of executive power. If they go this route, it would trigger an even bigger constitutional crisis than we’re in right now.
Professor at New York University’s Law School, Rick Pildes, spoke to NBC News about the potential for constitutional crisis:
"The concern is that the vice president’s statement could be taken to suggest that the Executive Branch is prepared to refuse to comply with a court order based on the president’s own view that he has a power that the courts have concluded he does not. A president who orders his officials not to comply with court orders would be creating a constitutional crisis."
If the Trump Administration were to openly defy court orders, this would be the ultimate test of American democracy.
It’s important to note that the courts aren’t entirely powerless if a court order is defied. Trump has immunity, but Musk, DOGE, and Trump Admin staffers do not. The courts can levy escalating fines and issue civil contempt orders on admin staffers - which Trump can’t pardon, according to legal experts. So there are remedies here.
The judiciary is one of the last institutional guardrails standing in Trump’s path to unchecked power. As courts push back, Trumpworld is testing the waters—floating the idea of defying judicial rulings and challenging the core idea of the separation of powers. A court ruling defiance, if left unchallenged, would unravel our constitutional order as we know it.
The Founders built checks and balances for moments like this—but they only work if those in power uphold them. Whether Trump is allowed to defy the courts depends on whether Congress, lower courts, and the Supreme Court fulfill their constitutional duty to stop him.
I have a friend who is an attorney and had been a Republican for many years. He was horrified that a Yale Law grad could say something so patently untrue. Scary times, Ahmed.