Legal experts are concerned that a constitutional “crisis” may be forthcoming after Vice President JD Vance suggested that he believes judges don’t have authority over President Donald Trump’s power.
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal,” Vance wrote on X on Sunday. “If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power.”
Experts warned NBC News that the U.S. may be headed for a “breakdown of the system.”
It remains unclear what judge or court order Vance was referring to or whether he was making a broader statement, as several issues on Trump’s agenda face legal hurdles in the courts. Judges have already put a pause on a number of Trump’s executive orders following about two dozen lawsuits. The most recent challenge came on Saturday when a federal judge temporarily blocked the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive payment systems as well as people’s personal information at the Treasury Department after 19 state attorneys general sued the Trump administration.
Columbia Law School professor Jamal Greene told NBC News that Vance wasn’t explicitly saying that the Trump administration was set to ignore court orders.
"I think the tweet, taken on its own terms, is empty because it refers to the 'legitimate powers' of the executive. And the whole question in these cases is whether the executive is acting legitimately or not," said Greene.
He added that Vance “has some cover in that sense. He hasn't promised unlawful behavior."
New York University Law School professor Rick Pildes also noted Vance’s use of the words “legitimate powers” when speaking to NBC News. But he went on to say that the courts can say what a president “legitimately” can or cannot do.
"Under the rule of law and the Constitution, it is the courts that determine whether some use of the executive power is lawful or not. That is the critical point," said Pildes.
He added: "The concern is that the vice president’s statement could be taken to suggest that the Executive Branch is prepared to refuse to comply with a court order based on the president’s own view that he has a power that the courts have concluded he does not.”
"A president who orders his officials not to comply with court orders would be creating a constitutional crisis,” the professor said.
However, Greene noted that others in Trump’s inner circle, such as Elon Musk, have suggested ignoring court orders.
Musk took to X on Saturday to boost a post from a user who wrote, "I don’t like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I’m just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us."
"Given the context of which [Vance's post] has happened, it seems to be a winking suggestion that maybe ignoring a court order is on the table,” Greene told NBC News.
Musk also argued that U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer should be impeached after he ruled early on Saturday that DOGE staffers’ access to Treasury Department data must be temporarily put on pause.
"A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW!" said Musk.
If DOGE staffers continued accessing sensitive information at the Treasury Department, there would be little Engelmayer could do.
Dan Urman, a Northeastern University law professor, told NBC News: “The bottom line is that our system is predicated on good faith, but also the rule of law in America means that the government abides by court rulings.”
"It would really provoke a crisis of sorts," he added. "The courts … lack the power of the purse and the sword … They don't have an army, and they don't have a huge budget. They have to rely on … their legitimacy."
Greene noted that if the executive behaves “lawlessly,” the main recourse is for Congress to impeach, which is unlikely with the Republicans controlling both houses of Congress.
“A Congress that simply refuses to respond to it in any way or assert its own institutional prerogative ... that's a breakdown of the system,” Greene told NBC News.
