when Donald Trump In his second term as president, top Democrats say he will have no “handrails” and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. he warned He will be “king above the law”.
“Ironic, isn’t it? The man charged with enforcing the law can now be broken,” Sotomayor proclaimed dramatic dissent in the case against Trump in July.
Republican control of Congress would give Trump a great opportunity to advance his priorities and completely overhaul the government and society of the United States.
A conservative majority of six Supreme Court justices will provide legal cover, and its decision in June Incorporating presumed immunity for official presidential actions could empower Trump in a way he has never been before.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at an election night party on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Evan Vucci/AP
But Trump’s agenda and his personal impulses will not go completely unchecked.
Trump’s nominations to lead executive agencies will require Senate confirmation and are not guaranteed. In his first term, several choices he had to withdraw considering after fierce opposition within his party.
The president’s executive orders and Trump agency regulations will have to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act, an arcane 1946 law that requires a “notice and comment period” for policy changes and to demonstrate that public input was considered.
“We will use every tool at our disposal — including aggressive litigation — to ensure that essential consumer and other regulatory protections remain in place,” said Robert Weissman and Lisa Gilbert, co-presidents of Public Citizen, a progressive advocacy group. He has sued Trump in the past.
During Trump’s first term, more than 246 agency regulations, guidance documents and memos were challenged in federal court. The administration won 54 of the cases, a 22% success rate, according to the data From the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU Law School.
In 192 cases, a court ruled against the Trump agency or the agency withdrew the controversial action after being sued. Many of these losses involved violations of the APA.
The Supreme Court in particular hit Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program; blocked The White House’s effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census; and nullified initial Trump travel ban mostly aimed at Muslim countries.
“I don’t think people paid enough attention that Trump obeyed the Court and agreed to rewrite the ‘Muslim ban’ three times to pass constitutional muster,” said Sarah Isgur, a former Trump Justice Department official. Legal contributor to ABC News.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups have vowed to attack new lawsuits against Trump’s agenda.
“When President Trump targets immigrants, dissidents and his political opponents, we will challenge them in the courts, in state legislatures and in the streets,” Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a statement.
The group filed 434 lawsuits against the first Trump administration, winning many cases even before Trump-appointed judges.
Democratic-led states are also preparing to join the legal battle.
“Make no mistake, we want to stand with states across our nation to defend our Constitution and defend the rule of law,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom, who introduced more than 100 cases Against the first Trump administration.
(By comparison, Texas sued the Obama administration 48 times over the course of his two terms, according to the Texas Tribune).
Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker warned this week: “To anyone who is intent on taking away freedom and opportunity and dignity from Illinoisans, I would remind them that a happy warrior is still a warrior. You come for my people, you come through me.”
The expected onslaught of lawsuits will clash with a federal judicial system full of judges appointed by Trump: more than 200 nominees in four years, surpassing then-President Barack Obama’s eight years.
Trump nominated three justices to the Supreme Court bench — Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — and may have a historic opportunity to nominate even more if the current justice retires or dies. It would be such a development consolidate conservative power In the Supreme Court for generations.
“Will the Supreme Court act as a meaningful check on Trump’s second presidency? They were a real check on the first Trump administration,” said University of Pennsylvania law professor Kate Shaw, a legal contributor to ABC News. “That, however, was a different court. Trump has now transformed the Supreme Court, and this court is unlikely to act as a comparable check.”
As for the checks on Trump’s individual conduct, Chief Justice John Roberts made it clear milestone opinion in June that a current or former president does not have absolute immunity from criminal or civil prosecution.
Roberts said basic constitutional powers are fully protected, with only “presumptive immunity” for other “official actions,” but left it up to potential future cases to test the limits.
Private conduct has no civil or criminal immunity, the court said. In 2020, it was Trump forced to comply with a grand jury subpoena for its financial records. Two years later, the court said Trump had to release his taxes to a House committee.
