A Constitutional War: The Courts Strike Back Against an Imperial Presidency

5 minutes read time.

A second federal appeals court in as many weeks has delivered a powerful and scathing rebuke to the Felonious Punk administration’s authoritarian overreach, a sign that a full-blown constitutional war is now being waged in the nation’s courtrooms. In a stunning decision on Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals—one of the most conservative in the country—blocked the administration’s attempt to use an archaic, 227-year-old wartime statute to deport gang members. This ruling, coming on the heels of another federal judge’s finding that the administration “willfully broke” the law by deploying troops to Los Angeles, establishes a clear and growing pattern of judicial resistance to a president who believes he is above the law. This is the story of that clash: a president who is digging in his heels, insisting his word is law, and a judiciary that is increasingly, and bravely, insistent on having the last.

The Two-Front Legal War: A Pattern of Illegality

The administration’s assault on the rule of law has been a multi-front campaign, and it is now facing a coordinated counter-attack from the judiciary. Two distinct but parallel legal battles have exposed the administration’s contempt for the Constitution.

The first front opened in California. In a devastating, 52-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer found that the administration’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles was a “serious violation of the Posse Comitatus Act,” the 1878 law that prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. Judge Breyer’s language was unflinching, stating the administration “willfully broke federal law” and attempted to invent a “constitutional exception” out of thin air that was “not grounded in the history of the Act, Supreme Court jurisprudence on executive authority, or common sense.” In a damning footnote that perfectly captured the administration’s monarchical ambitions, the judge pointed out that they had named their plan to sweep a public park “Operation Excalibur,” a reference to King Arthur’s sword and his “divine sovereignty.”

The second front opened this week in the 5th Circuit, a court known for its conservative leanings. The administration had invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—a law used only three times in history, all during declared wars—to justify the rapid deportation of members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The court, in a 2-1 decision that included a George W. Bush appointee, rejected this absurd legal premise. The judges ruled that a street gang, however dangerous, does not meet the historical standard of a foreign “invasion or predatory incursion” that the law was intended to address. The fact that this ruling came from a conservative court is a powerful signal that the administration’s legal theories are so extreme that they are beginning to lose the support of even their ideological allies.

The Administration’s Playbook of Contempt

The response from the White House to these powerful legal rebukes has not been one of reflection or course correction. It has been one of pure, unadulterated contempt. The administration’s playbook is now brutally clear: when a court rules against you, ignore the ruling, attack the judge, and escalate your threats.

The White House dismissed Judge Breyer as a “rogue judge.” And, in a stunning display of defiance, the Felonious Punk has spent the last 48 hours making the very same threats against Chicago and Baltimore that Judge Breyer’s ruling just declared illegal in California. Asked by reporters about sending troops to Chicago, the president declared, “We’re going in,” adding, “We have the right to do it. Because I have an obligation to protect this country, and that includes Baltimore.” This is not the language of a president who respects the judiciary as a coequal branch of government. This is the language of an autocrat who believes his will is the only law that matters. This is the very essence of the “Calvinball” presidency we have been discussing: a leader who, when confronted with the rules, simply decides to chop up the table and sell it for firewood.

The Shadow of the Supreme Court

The great and terrifying question that hangs over these lower court victories is whether they will stand. Neither the 9th Circuit nor the 5th Circuit rulings are the end of the story; they are merely the end of a single, important chapter. The administration has made it brutally clear that it will appeal these decisions directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, a body that has, time and again, used its emergency “shadow docket” to side with the administration and overturn lower court injunctions.

The legal system has become a high-stakes poker game. The lower courts, with their detailed, fact-based rulings, are laying down a powerful hand, arguing for the rule of law. But the administration believes it holds the ultimate trump card: a 6-3 conservative majority on a Supreme Court that has consistently shown its willingness to grant this presidency an almost unlimited deference. As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in a recent, scathing dissent, the court often seems to be operating under a single, unwritten rule: “this Administration always wins.”

A Nation at the Brink

The battles being waged in the federal courts are not abstract legal disputes. They are the front lines of the “soft civil war” for the soul of American democracy. It is a fundamental clash between a president who believes his power is absolute and a judicial system that is desperately, and perhaps futilely, trying to hold the line. The rulings from California and the 5th Circuit are powerful acts of institutional resistance, a sign that the judiciary is not yet willing to surrender. But with the administration digging in its heels, openly defying court orders and escalating its threats, the entire system is being pushed to the breaking point. The rulings are not the end of the story; they are simply the opening salvos in a constitutional war that will define this presidency and the future of the republic.