Support and Defend

Excerpts from the Constitution

Article II. Section 1.  Before he [the President] enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Amendment I.  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or religion or the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment IX. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

14^th Amendment.  Section 1.  All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

22nd Amendment.  Section 1.  No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice….

Threats to the Constitution

1. Trump has fired top officials at independent agencies such as a member of the independent National Labor Relations Board, when federal law and Supreme Court precedent indicate that he has no constitutional authority to do so.
2. He has also fired agency watchdogs without following legal requirements to give Congress 30 days notice.
3. Closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development, in violation of Federal law.
4. Impoundment of congressionally-appropriated funds at numerous federal agencies, in violation of federal law.
5. Initiation of plans to gut the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department, which helps investigate and prosecute corrupt public officials.
6. Under the law, presidents must notify Capitol Hill of their intent to hold on to allocated funds. Congress can accept or reject this proposal.  This has been violated repeatedly.
7. He has misused the military for his own domestic political purposes.
8. He has illegally reprogrammed federal funds to achieve his own policy objectives. He has politicized independent agencies for his own ends.
9. He has openly violated federal law, most notably in the areas of immigration and environmental protection.
10. He has strong-armed state and local governments to fall in line with his priorities by threatening, without statutory authorization, to withhold federal funds.
11. The executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship, which a federal judge said was “blatantly unconstitutional” as he blocked it.
12. Trump has already disregarded one Supreme Court decision, its ruling last month upholding a federal law, passed by lopsided bipartisan majorities, requiring TikTok to be sold or banned. Mr. Trump instead ordered the Justice Department not to enforce the law for 75 days, citing as authority for the move his “unique constitutional responsibility for the national security of the United States.”
13. Vance has said that Trump should ignore the Supreme Court.
14. Illegally firing government workers with the false narrative that it was due to their performance.
15. The conflict-of-interest laws have criminal implications. And Musk’s conflicts are glaring, as his companies are under federal scrutiny by several agencies over which he has immense power.
16. Summarily fired prosecutors involved in the cases against President Trump or the Jan. 6 rioters. Civil service job protections against arbitrarily firing federal workers without a good cause and without hearings before the Merit System Protection Board.
17. In a social media post, Trump suggested that his efforts to “save” the country put him above the law. “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Trump posted on Truth Social and X.
18. In a social media post, Elon Musk suggested judges should be impeached for using their oversight to check the power of the Trump administration.
19. The Department of Government Efficiency intervened at the Department of the Treasury, accessing the payment systems that distribute trillions of dollars of benefits, grants and tax refunds. 
20. This takeover of the Treasury Department’s payment system by a squad of junior engineers working for Musk, which could give him access to the most sensitive information held by the government or be a tool for retribution, competitive advantage, or even just the shutoff of payments, with catastrophic economic consequences.
21. The Trump administration fired roughly 17 inspectors generals across various federal agencies without giving Congress its legally required 30 days’ notice before removing the federal watchdogs. 
22. Trump’s executive order suspends access to asylum seekers at the southwest border and is being challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigration advocacy groups for violating a congressional act and attempting to bypass Congress.
23. Trump’s executive order revoked protections to parts of the U.S. outer continental shelf from future oil and gas leasing. Trump cannot undo those protections and “acted in excess of his authority under Article II of the U.S. Constitution and intruded on Congress’ non-delegated exclusive power under the property clause, in violation of the doctrine of separation of powers.
24. The Trump Administration said the federal government no longer explicitly prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as many state laws, still makes segregated facilities illegal in all businesses, including federal contractors.
25. As the Framers intended, Congress could begin impeachment proceedings on the rationale that dismantling the government as we know it violates the Constitution.

What Constitutional Experts are Saying

Many experts are now saying that we are witnessing a power grab, a constitutional crisis, or even a coup. Those who have studied the weakening of democratic governments around the world take no comfort in the similarity between the rapid collapse of government institutions in the United States in the last few weeks and collapsing democracies elsewhere, where aspirational autocrats, emboldened by electoral victory, take office and remove all checks on their power by law. When they get away with it, democracy dies.

“Without any doubt Donald Trump is the most lawless and scofflaw president we have ever seen in the history of the United States,” said Laurence Tribe, one of the nation’s leading constitutional scholars and a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, also voiced dismay at what he said was Trump’s flagrant flouting of the law in his first few days back in office.  “A stunning number of his executive actions clearly violate the constitution and federal law,” Chemerinsky said. “I cannot think of any president who has ever so ignored the constitution as extensively in the first 10 days of office as this.

Kate Andrias, a professor of constitutional law and administrative law at Columbia University, called those firings “unprecedented and illegal”. Regarding the Wilcox firing, she said: “The National Labor Relations Act makes clear that president can fire board members only for neglect of duty and malfeasance. NLRB members can’t be fired just because the president doesn’t want them on the board.”

Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton, said Richard Nixon also sometimes broke the law – most notably in the Watergate scandal – but “I don’t think he tried to overturn parts of the constitution. So maybe there, Trump has him beat.”

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