U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 24, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Critics of President Donald Trump often accuse him of blatantly violating federal and state laws in an effort to increase his power. But according to The New Republic's Matt Ford, a major part of Trump's ongoing power grab is using a different tactic: unearthing "moribund" laws and looking for ways to weaponize them.
The "moribund" laws that Trump and his legal team are digging up, Ford reports in The New Republic, are still on the books — and they are finding ways to exploit them.
"Congress has spent the last two centuries passing laws," Ford explains. "These laws often remain on the books, so to speak, long after their purpose has been fulfilled until lawmakers repeal them. Occasionally, the Trump administration finds something buried within this back catalogue that it can wield for its own purposes — and to no good end."
Ford continues, "This summer, for example, the Trump administration has moved to revive two different courts that are authorized by Congress but have laid moribund for decades or even centuries. One of them is the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, or ATRC, which the Justice Department plans to use to deport certain applicable immigrants in classified settings…. Earlier this week, the department also began moving towards reviving prize courts, which allow the U.S. government to seize foreign vessels captured during war — more specifically, any Iranian oil tankers captured during the ongoing illegal war with Iran. Under federal law, these prize courts operate within the existing federal district courts to hear cases on the legality of a ship's capture and pave the way for the vessel's eventual sale, as well as the sale of any goods on board."
Ford argues that Congress should respond to the Trump administration's "enthusiasm for reviving moribund laws to accomplish its policy goals" by "repealing or revising them."
"Trump and his allies have inflicted plenty of harm through violating federal laws during his second term," Ford warns. "Another important problem is when he abuses and misuses existing laws…. It is telling that the federal government had never before used the ATRC to deport someone, even at the height of the War on Terror under the George W. Bush administration."
According to Ford, Congress "has a pernicious habit of leaving loaded guns lying around in the United States Code" — and the Trump administration is taking advantage of these "moribund" laws.
"Just because past presidents haven't picked them up and abused them doesn't mean Trump and his successors should be able to do so," Ford observes. "One of Trump's first experiments with moribund laws this time was to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 last year against Venezuelan nationals living inside the United States who it claims are members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. History students may remember the law as one component of the Alien and Sedition Acts, a package of controversial and constitutionally dubious laws enacted by the John Adams administration in the late 1790s. The Alien Enemies Act was the only one that wasn't repealed, though it remained largely unused until recently."
