If
Trump successfully defies the courts, the only remaining obstacle to
dictatorship will be public revulsion, national popular protest, and the hope
that such a reaction would cause Trump to retreat and, at long last, recall
some fraction of the Republican Party to its constitutional duty.
Trump's post on X—the platform owned by billionaire shadow
government leader Elon Musk—came as his administration continued its
sweeping and destructive assault on the federal government and
workforce, running roughshod over the law in the process.
Trump's post Saturday was the latest brazen signal that the
president doesn't recognize limits on his authority to impose his far-right agenda.
New
York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie called Trump's message
"the single most un-American and anti-constitutional statement ever
uttered by an American president."
Since taking office less than a month ago, Trump and Musk
have moved aggressively to dismantle federal agencies and remove any
officials who could shine light on or obstruct their efforts.
Trump,
his handpicked Cabinet officials, and Musk have also disregarded or openly
attacked the other two co-equal branches of government, accusing judges
who have moved to halt or limit the new administration's actions of being
Democratic partisans.
In some cases, the Trump administration has actively
defied rulings from federal courts, an alarming indication of what's to
come.
Yasmin Abusaif and Douglas Keith of the Brennan Center for
Justice noted Friday, "The last time the United States saw
widespread open defiance of court orders by elected officials was when
governors in Southern states refused to integrate their schools after the
Supreme Court ruled against segregation in public education in Brown v.
Board of Education."
"President Dwight Eisenhower—though he was no fan of
the court's decision—ultimately dispatched troops to the South to help enforce
the ruling, saying, “The Supreme Court has spoken and I am sworn to uphold
the constitutional process in this country, and I will obey,” Abusaif and Keith
continued.
"The governors' efforts to defy court orders are widely
acknowledged as one of the most shameful periods in US history."
Frank Bowman, a law professor and former federal and state
prosecutor, wrote for Slate last week. "With each
passing day, the practical ability of the courts to stop, or even materially
hinder, the catastrophe diminishes."
Courtesy: Common Dreams
