Trump’s defiance of the courts puts America into a constitutional crisis | Opinion

That America has reached a constitutional crisis should be clear to all: President Donald Trump is making a mockery of the rule of law by his refusal to follow rulings issued by federal judges, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

A constitutional crisis occurs when one of the branches of government exceeds its authority given in the Constitution, America’s sacred governing document. As the carefully designed checks and balances of power are now collapsing due to a defiant executive branch, the Constitution and our democracy collapses with it.

Congress makes the nation’s laws. The president carries out the laws. The courts interpret the laws and judge Congress and the president’s actions.

Trump has exceeded what America’s founders envisioned when they created the executive branch of government. With a seeming insatiable appetite for power, Trump is putting the country on a path to becoming an authoritative state. He seeks to become the law.

There are many examples, but two stand out: the case of a Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador, and the arrest of a Wisconsin state judge.

Ignoring Supreme Court order

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is an undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. in 2011 to escape gang violence in El Salvador. In 2019, he and some other men went to a local Home Depot for work; police detained them based on clothing and tattoos. An informant used by police said Abrego Garcia was part of a notorious Salvadoran gang, MS-13, in New York. But he never lived in New York. Police did not charge the men and Abrego Garcia was released.

Fast forward to this past March: Abrego Garcia was pulled over by immigration agents in Baltimore and taken into custody. He was then deported to El Salvador even though a U.S. immigration judge had previously issued an order for him not to be removed to that country over concerns for his safety.

The Trump administration admitted it mistakenly sent Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, but said it could not bring him back. El Salvador’s president refused to release him from the high-security prison holding notorious criminals. Abrego Garcia has sued the American government.

In early April, federal Judge Paula Xinis ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the man’s return to the United States so his case could receive rightful due process. The administration appealed to the Supreme Court. On April 10 the high court upheld Xinis’ order and said the federal government must “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

Yet Abrego Garcia has not been returned to America as ordered by the Supreme Court.

On Tuesday, Trump admitted in a television interview that he could call the Salvadoran president and order Abrego Garcia’s release. But Trump refuses to do so, and so defies the courts.

If the Trump administration can deport a man without any due process to a different country, then disregard the Supreme Court’s order to return that person to the United States, American democracy has reached a constitutional crisis.

Arresting a judge causes crisis

The case of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan is another example of Trump exceeding constitutional boundaries to his power.

Dugan was charged April 25 with allegedly obstructing a government proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent arrest. The charges stem from an incident where the judge allegedly hindered U.S. immigration agents who tried to take an undocumented immigrant into custody in her courtroom. Dugan allegedly tried to help Eduardo Flores-Ruiz evade arrest by allowing him to exit through a jury door — agents eventually arrested him outside the courthouse.

Why did Dugan resist the agents? For one thing, they lacked a proper arrest warrant from a federal judge. They only had an administrative order, so she would have violated judicial protocols to let the arrest happen.

More importantly, the officers violated a guarantee of the American justice system: That anyone, citizen or not, can enter a courthouse to have their case heard without fear of arrest.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently recognized that unrestricted access to courts is essential for constitutional governance,” writes Andy J. Semotiuk in a Forbes magazine essay. “This right is also protected by the Sixth Amendment. Eroding this access jeopardizes all other rights.”

Semotiuk adds this: “The Trump administration’s decision to target Judge Dugan transforms the courthouse — a traditional sanctuary of rights — into an arm of law enforcement. It turns judges from guardians of liberty into potential co-conspirators in the executive’s punitive machinery. It is not just the undocumented who are endangered; it is every American who may one day need a court’s protection.”

Rule of law is at risk of being lost

In 1962 President John F. Kennedy warned Americans against allowing a man, i.e., the president, to become greater than the rule of law:

“For our Nation is founded on the principle that observance of the law is the eternal safeguard of liberty and defiance of the law is the surest road to tyranny. The law which we obey includes the final rulings of the courts, as well as the enactments of our legislative bodies ... If this country should ever reach the point where any man or group of men by force or threat of force could long defy the commands of our court and our Constitution, then no law would stand free from doubt, no judge would be sure of his writ, and no citizen would be safe from his neighbors.”

Trump is disobeying judicial rulings and defying the rule of law. In just over 100 days of his term, the president has put the nation into a constitutional crisis.

Congressional Republicans must muster the courage to buck Trump and demand he respect the courts, their branch of government and the Constitution. Democrats must protest Trump’s anti-democratic agenda. The courts must not back down, and they must demand respect for judicial rulings.

The threat is real, and the time is short. American democracy is at stake. The founding fathers did not design the solution to this dilemma. Americans must now fashion it themselves to preserve our fundamental freedoms.