beachscratApr 4, 2025
George Takei  🏳️‍🌈🖖🏽
Trump’s defiance of court rulings has many asking: Do the courts still hold real power against an autocratic president? Legal expert Professor Tobias Barrington Wolff tackles this question and more in this must-read Q&A with The Big Picture. Catch up on the conversation here. https://thinkbigpicture.substack.com/p/tobias-barrington-wolff-contempt-power
The Looming Constitutional Showdown Between Trump And The Courts

The power of contempt is an important judicial tool...but will it restrain Trump at all?

Apr 4, 2025 at 4:11pmWeb
Show threadNed Yeung 🍉Apr 4, 2025

@georgetakei

I don't think the law matters anymore because law is enforced by lawyers, and Trump has used Executive Orders to force the largest law firms to succumb. With no lawyers to challenge him in court, the law doesn't matter.

https://abovethelaw.com/2025/03/skadden-makes-100-million-settlement-with-trump-in-pro-bono-payola/

Skadden Makes $100 Million ‘Settlement’ With Trump in Pro Bono Payola

How did Skadden get a worse deal than Paul Weiss?

Above the Law
Show threadProfessor_StevensApr 4, 2025

@ned @georgetakei

Forgive me if I say, "not all lawyers," but there are firms standing up to Trump. I don't think he can neutralize the judiciary on the advice of Dick the Butcher.

Show threadNed Yeung 🍉Apr 4, 2025

@Professor_Stevens @georgetakei

I do hope you're right! But he is targeting the firms with the largest resources because he knows that "the fattest cats fold first" and that by taking their lawyers (not just taking them out of the way, but forcing them to work for him), the ones left standing against him will be limited in resources and too weak to fight.

I have faith in the strength and resiliency of the steadfast lawyers in smaller firms, but not in the justice system built around wealth and resources.

Show threadProfessor_StevensApr 4, 2025

@ned @georgetakei

Don't confuse a big firm with a good lawyer. Trump may think that way, but he doesn't know how the legal system works. (And even so, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, Perkins Coie, and others are fighting him and winning.)

ACLU has good lawyers and plenty of resources. So do law schools. The craven partners at the firms that are folding are driven by their bottom line. People motivated by other things won't give up so easily.

Show threadNed Yeung 🍉Apr 4, 2025

@Professor_Stevens @georgetakei

And they have hundreds of years of laws which backs them and not Trump, so there is that...

Show threadProfessor_StevensApr 4, 2025

@ned @georgetakei

There ya go!

We are definitely in trouble. But we have not yet been defeated, nor is that inevitable.

Show threadBe_OutsideApr 4, 2025
@georgetakei
courts that could and should have stopped a twice impeached felon from ever being able to run for prez in the first place, yet did not restrain him at all...?
...I think we all know the short answer to the question.
Show threadProfessor_StevensApr 4, 2025

@Rural_Canadian @georgetakei

Remarkably, neither impeachment (without conviction), nor felony criminal conviction, is a barrier to being elected president.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/presidential-qualifications-felony-crime-convictions/3518094/

Can a convicted felon run for president? It's happened before

Can Donald Trump be president again if convicted of a felony? Here's what the U.S. Constitution says about who can be president.

NBC4 Washington
Show threadBandersnatchApr 4, 2025

@georgetakei

Inherent Contempt still exists. We haven't needed it in decades, but it's still there.

Let the DoJ lawyers, or the deportation pilots sit in a DC jail cell for a couple of weeks & see if they are more cooperative.

Show threadCoated Ambassadors Everywhere!Apr 4, 2025
@georgetakei Wasn't it Trump himself or Vance who declared courts had no relevance because they have no army? This leaves little room for interpetation.
Show threadJdeBPApr 5, 2025

@georgetakei

Devin Stone, #LegalEagle on YouTube and Nebula, has been discussing this one for some time. And yesterday xe pointed out that there isn't a looming Constitutional crisis. The crisis is here, now. The question is whether it is over, and the rule of law has lost.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=75WcxrewCxw&t=1263

https://nebula.tv/legaleagle

#USLaw #ConstitutionalLaw #USPolitics #DonaldJTrump

What Happens When He Ignores Court Orders?

YouTube
Show threadScott KnowlesApr 5, 2025
@georgetakei It started when SCOTUS gave Trump immunity from any action, legal or not, as president. He can simply keep signing illegal Executive Orders with impunity and his administration can do whatever they want without consequences. Federal courts will call it illegal, but they'll ignore it and keep going. Not even SCOTUS can stop him without overturning their ruling. Trump can be king. Who's going to stop him?