Bipartisan letter states Trump ‘is not king,’ executive orders are illegal
More than 950 U.S. law professors and teachers signed a letter published Wednesday deeming some of President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders a “constitutional crisis.”
“The President has signed a number of executive orders that are beyond his constitutional or statutory authority,” the letter states.
The scholars criticize the president for attempting to alter citizenship status, block funds Congress has already approved, and attach new, “politically-motivated” rules to government benefits.
Trump has no authority to dismantle agencies or departments established by Congress, nor can he hand over government operations to private individuals free from legal oversight, the letter states.
“We believe we are in a constitutional crisis,” it states.
The letter also states:
The illegality of these actions, even when the illegality has been adjudged in federal courts, does not seem to be deterring the President’s actions. Instead, the President and his administration are openly flirting with disobeying judicial rulings against him. In fact, the President has proclaimed, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
We are saddened by the fact that we have to explain to the President this fundamental democratic principle, but we do: a president has the obligation to obey the Constitution as well as court orders enjoining his illegal and unconstitutional efforts. The law is not whatever Mr. Trump says it is. He is not king.
The signatories have differing views on policy, but agree that “the President has acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally,” the letter states.
Kent Greenfield, a Boston College Law School professor, collaborated with the American Constitution Society, a progressive nonprofit, to organize the letter, according to the ACS.
ACS did not respond to a request for comment from The College Fix via email regarding the letter’s intended impact.
One of the letter’s signatories, Stanford University Law Professor Pamela Karlan, told The New York Times earlier this month Trump “doesn’t care what the Constitution says.”
“Up until now, while presidents might engage in particular acts that were unconstitutional, I never had the sense that there was a president for whom the Constitution was essentially meaningless,” she said.
The professor also said if Trump faced the Supreme Court, she worries the justices would side with him out of fear that he would disregard rulings against him.
“The idea that courts should preserve the illusion of power by abdicating their responsibilities would just make the constitutional crisis even worse,” she said.
These professors are not the only ones targeting Trump’s executive orders. The American Association of University Professors and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education recently filed a lawsuit to halt two executive orders targeted at ending “diversity, equity and inclusion” programs, The Fix previously reported.
Last week, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking parts of the orders, ruling they “infringe on core constitutional protections.” However, U.S. Department of Education spokesperson Madi Biedermann told The Fix the agency believes the executive orders are legal.
MORE: Trump signs executive order banning men from women’s sports
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