The crisis of Trump’s assault on the rule of law. Part 2
"Nothing like this in American history’: the crisis of Trump’s assault on the rule of law
By Ed Pilkington
Hamilton is not the only person to have noticed the judiciary’s fundamental lack of teeth as a result of any independent enforcement mechanism to back up its rulings. Ominously, the vice-president, JD Vance, has grasped this too.
Back in 2021 Vance, then a venture capitalist and book author, was predicting that Trump would be elected for a second presidential term. During a podcast appearance, he conjured up the vision of Trump, back in power, firing “every civil servant in the administrative state” and replacing them “with our people” – a scenario which seemed fanciful three years ago but is all too realistic today.
Vance went on to advise Trump what he should do were the supreme court to try and stop him from turning the US government into a Maga redoubt. He invoked a probably apocryphal quote from Andrew Jackson relating to a conflict in 1832 between the then president and the justices.
“Stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did,” Vance urged Trump, “and say: ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”
For Toobin, this marks the ultimate crunch. As he points out, the supreme court is but nine men and women, supported by a staff of fewer than 500.
They are minnows confronted by a shark. And the only weapon they have at their disposal is an etherial one: the consent of the governed upon which this whole teetering edifice stands.
“The supreme court is dependent on the universal assumption that it has the last word on the constitution, and that a president will always honor those rulings. What makes this moment so perilous is that no one knows for sure what happens if he doesn’t.”
By Ed Pilkington
Hamilton is not the only person to have noticed the judiciary’s fundamental lack of teeth as a result of any independent enforcement mechanism to back up its rulings. Ominously, the vice-president, JD Vance, has grasped this too.
Back in 2021 Vance, then a venture capitalist and book author, was predicting that Trump would be elected for a second presidential term. During a podcast appearance, he conjured up the vision of Trump, back in power, firing “every civil servant in the administrative state” and replacing them “with our people” – a scenario which seemed fanciful three years ago but is all too realistic today.
Vance went on to advise Trump what he should do were the supreme court to try and stop him from turning the US government into a Maga redoubt. He invoked a probably apocryphal quote from Andrew Jackson relating to a conflict in 1832 between the then president and the justices.
“Stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did,” Vance urged Trump, “and say: ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”
For Toobin, this marks the ultimate crunch. As he points out, the supreme court is but nine men and women, supported by a staff of fewer than 500.
They are minnows confronted by a shark. And the only weapon they have at their disposal is an etherial one: the consent of the governed upon which this whole teetering edifice stands.
“The supreme court is dependent on the universal assumption that it has the last word on the constitution, and that a president will always honor those rulings. What makes this moment so perilous is that no one knows for sure what happens if he doesn’t.”
