Supreme Court justice sounds alarm over executive power grab as Trump launches attack on judiciary

12 February

'Rule of law': Supreme Court Justice emphasizes importance of separation of powers. Image via Creative Commons.

Editor's Note: This headline has been updated for clarity.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke of the authority of the courts and the limits of the executive branch’s power Tuesday as experts fear a looming constitutional crisis, NBC News reported.

“Our founders were hellbent on ensuring that we didn’t have a monarchy and the first way they thought of that was to give Congress the power of the purse,” she said.

The liberal justice made the comments at an appearance at Miami Dade College in Florida. Sotomayor did not mention Trump specifically, and she emphasized that she was speaking broadly. However, the statements take place in the context of experts’ fears that the Trump administration could disregard court orders. Several judges have challenged some of Trump’s more audacious executive orders since he took office. And on Monday, a Rhode Island judge found that the Trump administration was in violation of a court order to undo a freeze on federal funding.

“Court decisions stand, whether one particular person chooses to abide by them or not,” Sotomayor when asked about keeping a separation of power in the government. “It doesn’t change the foundation that it’s still a court order that someone will respect at some point.”

Last week, Vice President JD Vance challenged the authority of the judicial branch in a post on X. “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal,” he wrote. “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

Some experts are worried about what could happen if Trump flouts court orders. “Constitutional crisis may be a little bit over the top, but I think what we're seeing is we're on the verge of getting there,” lawyer Mark Zaid told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera Tuesday. “I've been saying to so many people that we're not even close to how bad it's going to be. It is going to get far, far worse.”

Sotomayor said the top court has to “make it clear to the society, to the presidents, to the Congress, to the people that we are doing things based on law and the Constitution as we are interpreting it fairly.”

She added that the court has “the power of reason, and that’s what most people would consider a soft power, but it’s the most powerful of all,” she said.

"We’ve had moments where it’s been tested, but by and large, we have been a country who has understood that the rule of law has helped us maintain our democracy, but it’s also because the court has proceeded cautiously," she said.

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