'Very serious threat': Ex-federal judge explains how MAGA is provoking a 'constitutional crisis'

20 March

When President Donald Trump and many of his MAGA allies called for the impeachment of Judge James Boasberg — the Barack Obama appointee who temporarily halted the deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan nationals allegedly associated with the violent Tren de Aragua gang — he got a stern rebuke from conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, who addressed the role that federal judges play in the United States' system of checks and balances.

Trump and his MAGA allies, including billionaire Tesla/SpaceX/X.com leader Elon Musk and "War Room" host Steve Bannon, are accusing Boasberg and other federal judges of failing to respect the executive powers that Trump enjoys as president. But Trump's critics are countering that Boasberg and other federal judges have every right to block executive orders they consider unconstitutional — and if Trump can openly defy the federal courts, critics say, the U.S. no longer has checks and balances or separation of powers.

In an interview with Politico's Ankush Khardori published on March 20, former federal Shira Scheindlin addressed the constitutional issues that Trump's actions raise.

Trump told Fox News' Laura Ingraham that he will not openly defy federal court orders. But if that were to happen, Scheindlin told Khardori, "That's when authoritarians become dictators and really tear down the temple by just ignoring the Constitution, ignoring the judiciary. That would be the shocking end to our 250-year experiment."

Khardori asked Scheindlin, "Are you worried that we'll see a situation where the government explicitly and outright defies a court order?" — to which the former federal judge responded, "I am concerned about that."

Scheindlin continued, "We've been talking — we being civil society, everybody — about whether we're in a constitutional crisis. Everybody keeps writing an op-ed saying, 'Not yet, but almost.' The constitutional crisis will occur when the executive branch says to the judicial branch, 'Too bad, I don't have to listen to you.' That's a constitutional crisis, and we haven't quite gotten there. It seems to me that this executive branch is getting as close to that line as they possibly can without crossing it yet. But if they really just say, 'We don't have to listen to you,' that's very bad. There have to be three co-equal branches of government, and each branch has to respect the other…. If we really had the constitutional crisis that I just described — where the executive branch says to the judicial branch, 'I dont have to listen to you' — that's a very, very, very serious threat to our democracy."

Scheindlin applauded Roberts' rebuke of Trump.

Scheindlin told Khardori, "Trump knows better…. A lot of us have spoken out against the word 'impeachment,' pointing out very simply that a ruling you don't agree with is neither a high crime nor a misdemeanor, and impeachment is limited to those (circumstances) and has never been used in any other way. So that's outrageous. It’s a terrible thought."

Scheindlin continued, "You disagree with the ruling, as Roberts said, you appeal it and you appeal it again — and that's our system. But you can't get rid of the judge. The Constitution gives us life tenure. That's the Constitution, and so, impeachment is just not on the table. There's no basis. It’s not a high crime or misdemeanor."

Read Ankush Khardori's full interview with Shira Scheindlin at this link.

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