Scott Boehmer

Tag: Constitutional Crisis

  • What Happens When He Ignores Court Orders?

    Our governmental system relies on each branch respecting the rule of law. Donald Trump’s administration clearly doesn’t, so what happens now?

    What Happens When He Ignores Court Orders? (YouTube – LegalEagle)

  • The Parchment Barrier

    No document, however brilliantly conceived, can resist people who view its constraints and its needs as needling inconveniences, rather than sacred boundaries and responsibilities. Constitutional democracy is high-maintenance. It only works if the people who are meant to care, actually care – and express their investment through active stewardship. Not just when it’s convenient, not just when their side wins or loses, not just when they feel like it, but always.

    What the United States is witnessing now, what every democracy is facing in the middle of a global backslide, is the exposure of the constitutional system’s fundamental vulnerability: it cannot withstand the destructive pressure of a populace who have lost interest. Who have lost faith. Who no longer believe in the project itself. Who have simply stopped showing up.

    Joan Westenberg

    The Parchment Barrier (The Index)

  • The End of Law?

    As Trump’s marauding continues, America’s last defense is the federal courts. But the big story here (which hasn’t received nearly the attention it deserves) is that the Trump-Vance-Musk regime is ignoring the courts.

    On Sunday, Vice President JD Vance declared that “judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

    This is bonkers. In our system of government, it’s up to the courts to determine whether the president is using his power “legitimately,” not the president.

    Robert Reich

    The end of law? (Robert Reich)

  • The Constitution Should Be a Red Line

    In fact, this herky-jerky structure of checks and balances, vetoes, two houses, jurisdiction left to the states, the war powers divided between the president and the congress. This unwieldy structure is the whole idea. No one has or should ever have all the power. So the concern I’m raising today isn’t some academic exercise or manifestation of political jealousy, or abstract institutional loyalty. It’s the guts of the system designed to protect us from the inevitable, and I mean inevitable, abuse or an authoritarian state.

    Senator Angus S. King, Jr.

    Now is the time to establish a redline — the Constitution itself (Senator Angus S. King, Jr.)