Since President Trump was inaugurated in January, he has unleashed a barrage of attacks on federal institutions, employees, laws, and regulations. Agencies that deal with climate, energy, and environmental policy have been on the receiving end of many of these attacks, more than a few of which are of dubious legality and go far beyond anything Trump attempted in his first term.
With Democratic minorities in the House and Senate, and virtually no resistance from Republicans in Congress, Trump’s agenda has rolled out with only the judicial branch as a “last bulwark” against it. Some have countered that the bulwark is leaky or partly collapsed, and “courts alone can’t save us.” Even so, lawsuits against various parts and officials of the Trump administration continue to pile up. The question is whether the administration will prompt a constitutional crisis by ignoring or defying judicial decisions it dislikes. Whether the United States is already in a constitutional crisis, or merely rapidly approaching one, is a matter of vigorous debate.
Michael Burger, the executive director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said this debate hinges on whether the Trump administration must defy the Supreme Court to launch a full-blown constitutional crisis, or if defying a lower court is enough.
But in Burger’s opinion? “We’re already there,” he said. “The only question is, how far is it going to go?”
Jessica S. McKenzie 