Law and Constitutional experts warned on Sunday that the U.S. could face a "constitutional crisis" or "collapse" after Vice President JD Vance suggested that a judge had no jurisdiction over Trump's "legal powers" The system is moving forward.
Vance wrote in the post: "It would be illegal if the judge tried to tell the general how to conduct military operations. It would be illegal if the judge tried to direct the Attorney General how to use her discretion as a prosecutor." "Judges are not allowed to control the legal powers of the executive."
It is unclear what Judge Vance or the court order refers to, or whether he is making a widespread statement. Vance's comments have been posted in the weeks since Trump took office, as several of Trump's projects have encountered legal obstacles.
A Vance spokesman did not respond to clarifications in NBC news.
Some of Trump's execution orders have been challenged in court in more than two dozen lawsuits and temporarily suspended the judge. A federal judge temporarily blocked Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk’s government efficiency division in a recent legal challenge Saturday, unable to obtain after filing a lawsuit from 199 state attorneys generals Sensitive Treasury Payment System and Personal Data of Americans.
Professor Jamal Greene At Columbia Law School, it was noted that Vance did not explicitly say that the Trump administration is ready to ignore the court order.
Green told NBC News: "I think this tweet is empty on its own terms because it refers to the 'legitimate power of executives.
"(Vance) has some cover," Green added. "He has no commitment to illegal acts."
Rick Pildes, a professor at the New York University School of Law, also noted that Vance used the term “legal power” in his position, but pointed out that the judiciary is capable of deciding what the president can “legal” or do. branch office. Don't do this.
"Under the rule of law and the constitution, the court decides whether certain enforcement powers are legal. That's the key point," Pildes told NBC News via email.
"The concern is that the Vice President's statement can be made to show that the executive is ready to refuse to comply with the court order based on the President's own opinion that he has the power to the court has concluded," he said, "he" additional. "The President ordered his officials not to comply with the court's court. Orders will cause a constitutional crisis. ”
Green pointed out that others on the presidential track, including Musk, ignored court orders.
Musk reposted in a post on X on Saturday, one user wrote: "I don't like the precedent set when you violate a judicial ruling, but I just want to know what other options are there for these judges .”
"Given that this happened (in Vance's post), it seems like a wink suggestion that it might be ignoring the court order right on the table," Green said.
In separate posts On X, Musk called on federal judge Paul Engelmayer to temporarily stop employees from accessing Treasury data early Saturday morning.
"A corrupt judge protects corruption." "He needs imprisonment now!"
For example, if Doge employees will continue to access sensitive Treasury data, Engelmayer will have little recourse.
"The most important thing is that our system is based on sincerity, but the rule of law in the United States also means that the government complies with court rulings," Dan Urman, a law professor at Northeastern University, told NBC News.
"It does cause all kinds of crises," Ullman said. "The court has no famous ones - from the Federalists 78 - they lack the power of wallets and swords, right? They don't have an army, and they don't have a huge budget.
Although there will be several ways for the court to punish the president for violating the ruling, the third branch of the government (Parliament) can indeed intervene.
“The key is that if you do this, executives won’t be able to do it,” Green said. “In constitutional design, the solution is impulse.”
Currently, Republicans control every branch of the federal government, so the chances of Republicans leading the impulse and the chances of removing their own party president are small.
“If Congress didn’t do that, then people wouldn’t do a lot,” Green said. “That’s the moment when you no longer operate in a constitutional autonomous system.”
Green added that the executive branch that ignores the judiciary is “just the original exercise of power” and simply refuses to respond in any way or claim their own institutional privileges… This is a breakdown of the system. ”
Urman added that the U.S. political system aims to have three equal branches of government, checking each other.
"The courts can't do all the work," he said. "They have, they have to get more support from other branches and society itself, right? It doesn't work when they're alone."