An M.I.A. Congress Exacerbates the Clash Between Trump and the Courts
Congress has to step up and take some responsibility for the shaping of public policy.
Despite the hand-wringing of the commentariat, the fights between the Trump White House and some federal trial judges has yet to reach a “constitutional crisis.” A few federal district judges have issued scores of injunctions temporarily blocking some elements of Trump’s agenda for his first 100 days. But rather than a breakdown in the constitutional order, this jostling fulfills the Framers’ design for the separation of powers, which encourages conflict between the branches of government.
Some blame the problem on an overly aggressive Donald Trump, bent on expanding executive power beyond constitutional limits. Others criticize Democrat-appointed federal district judges, seeing them as politicized activists forming the spearhead of unconstitutional resistance to Trump’s initiatives. In these visions, we have an Imperial Presidency pitted against an Imperial Judiciary.
In fact, the conflict between Trump and the courts has escalated not because of any threat to the Constitution, but because of the dog that did not bark. In the famous Sherlock Holmes story, the great detective solves the case because a guard dog did not bark at night — revealing the dog’s owner to be the killer. Today, the missing dog is Congress. Congress could settle many of the disputes slowing the Trump agenda if it were simply to step forward and fulfill its constitutional responsibilities. As Andy McCarthy observed yesterday, Congress could even defuse the growing conflict between Trump and the courts over the deportation of Venezuelan gang members.
Politics
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