As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been providing “Constitutional Minutes” to Women4Change; for the past few weeks, I’ve been sending a brief description of a constitutional provision, and an explanation of how Trump is violating it, to the organization for posting on its webpage. It occurs to me that I should share a couple of those explanations here, in support of my assertion that we are in the midst of a grand-daddy of a Constitutional crisis.
Let’s look, for example, at Trump’s attack on birthright citizenship.
Section One of the 14th Amendment reads as follows: 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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Trump’s Executive Order, in pertinent part, reads: It is the policy of the United States that no department or agency of the United States government shall issue documents recognizing United States citizenship, or accept documents issued by State, local, or other governments or authorities purporting to recognize United States citizenship, to persons: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.
The law is clear. A president cannot repeal part of the Constitution by executive order. Congress cannot repeal a Constitutional provision by passing a new law. Amending the Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, and subsequent ratification by three-quarters of the states.
Or let’s look at Elon Musk’s rampage through the federal government.
In our constitutional system, power comes from We the People. Only officials selected through constitutional methods may wield power in our name. Past Supreme Court cases have make it clear that individuals who serve in “continuing” positions and who exercise “significant authority” on behalf of the United States must be appointed consistent with Article II’s Appointments Clause. That clause sets forth two methods to appoint “officers of the United States.” “Principal” officers must be nominated by the president and are subject to the advice and consent of the Senate.
With respect to “inferior officers,” the Constitution allows Congress to give the appointment power to the president, to the head of a department, or to the courts. However, inferior officers must be subject to the supervision of someone other than the president. Those who report directly to the president are by definition principal officers.
The Appointments Clause subjects individuals wielding significant authority — principal officers — to Senate confirmation. Elon Musk is clearly wielding significant power (as evidenced by growing references to him as a “co-President.”) His activities through DOGE—a “department” that does not exist—are wreaking constant havoc with the operations of critical government agencies, threatening everything from FEMA’s responses to South Carolina’s fires to the timely delivery of Social Security checks.
There are at least two pending lawsuits alleging that Musk’s power cannot be squared with the Appointments Clause—that to exercise the authority he is exercising, he must be appointed as provided by the Constitution. (One such case, in Maryland, was filed by current and former federal employees and contractors; another, in Washington, D.C., was brought by a number of states.) The judge in the Maryland case said that he was “highly suspicious” of the administration’s (phony) explanation for Musk’s role. The judge in the Washington case has found that Musk has “rapidly taken steps to fundamentally reshape the executive branch,” with no apparent “source of legal authority” and that his actions appear to describe “precisely the ‘executive abuses’ that the Appointments Clause seeks to prevent.”
Over the past few weeks, I’ve identified several other obvious and egregious violations of America’s founding charter. There are numerous lawsuits pending, and growing public anger, but there is no guarantee that Trump will obey the courts, and thus far, no indications that Congressional Republicans will locate their spines.
Meanwhile, Trump and Musk are busy destroying the federal government’s ability to operate domestically, and betraying our allies abroad.
As the saying goes, we aren’t in Kansas anymore….
Before this is over with, when Elon Musk is deported, and Donald Trump at a prison onion farm convicted of treason, we will all
be Constitutional scholars.
Norris Lineweaver. I like the future you are imagining and am willing to take actions to create it.
The rule of law, the Constitution and rational behavior are foreign to a foreign agent of Russia. Trump has NEVER let breaking the law bother him, and most pertinently the justice system has NEVER held him accountable. It’s the perfect storm for a career criminal and mob boss who also happens to be a psychopath.
Gee. Imagine a country where the elected officials actually follow the law and the founding document. Not any more. Oh, but the MAGA morons keep saying, “Oh, just shut up and let him do his job.” Well, he’s doing his “job” alright. And soon, MAGATS, you won’t have one.
It appears that we may be akin to the proverbial frog in the water about to boil. There are signs – mostly court actions – that the good guys aren’t going to take it anymore, but methinks they’d (we’d) better hurry, and not be deterred from the profoundly important task of protecting our Constitution. Ignoring the pesky parts of the Constitution that aren’t convenient in your quest for power mr. trump isn’t going to work anymore. We won’t stand for it.
If you’re the grifter in there you can pick what laws you want to enforce. The US is the one of the money laundering capitals of the world because of our loose disclosure laws. A bipartisan Congress passed the Corporate Transparency Act last year, Right now when a corporation is set up, the only name that has to be on the corporation is the name of the lawyer that set it up and not any of the parties that have a “beneficial interest“. You can see how that lack of disclosure would make the US a favorite for people trying to hide financial transactions or keep dark money donors secret.
Because I’m on the board of our HOA i’ve been getting updates from our management company about reporting requirements under this new act. Here’s the latest update.I just got about how the Trump administration is trying to grift us:
On Sunday, March 2, 2025, the Treasury Department issued a press release stating that the administration would permanently suspend enforcement of the law against all U.S. citizens or domestic reporting companies or their beneficial owners. The Treasury Department now intends to issue proposed new regulations narrowing the scope of the reporting requirements to foreign reporting companies only. However, although the Treasury Department may seek to impose regulation related to law, it is not a lawmaking body itself. The Treasury Department does not have the authority to overrule an act of Congress without the support of Congress itself.
At this point, the Corporate Transparency Act remains in effect and is not stayed by any court order, but there is a clear intent that the Treasury Department does not intend to enforce the reporting requirements against domestic entities. The court cases challenging the law remain pending, and there is at least one bill in Congress to extend the reporting deadlines.
When SCOTUS ruled that a President is immune from prosecution when exercising the ‘core powers’ of the presidency, Trump took it as a license to rape, plunder and pillage, which have always been his core power. The Supreme Court gave him license to unleash his inner self, literally a kid in a candy store.
Then Muskrat gave him the keys to the Whitehouse for what was chump change for him. He and his fraternity brothers began defining the formerly United States part of North America. Of course our new definition closely resembles South Africa under apartheid.
Vance completes the triumvirate as a lawyer, pretending to bless anything that crosses Trump’s demented mind.
It seems that everything that can go wrong is going wrong. No surprise there.
Vern, I’m not sure Trump is a mob boss. Based on his past, he’s more like a stooge or asset used mainly by financiers who’ve bailed him out of more than one financial upheaval. As you say, he is rarely held accountable. If you look at his career lawsuits, Wikipedia has established a page for, there are around 4,000 cases. Do you think he cares about what that ancient piece of paper says about how he and Musk can do their jobs?
When the courts checked Musk’s power, he demanded that Congress impeach the judge. He believes the executive calls the shots regardless of our stupid constitution.
Epstein was much, much, more than a sexual deviant. If you have noticed, he, too, faced no legal barriers to what he had been doing for years. His partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, was the daughter of a wealthy British publisher. However, he was more than that as well. He was part of British intelligence.
If you have also noticed, Epstein’s clientele has had no repercussions. None. They were rapists and child molesters, but none of them has seen a prison. Our prisons are full of child molesters, but none were clients of Epstein.
Rules and laws are for the masses.
One other note on Musk, like Donny, he moved to Canada before his 18th birthday to avoid mandatory military service in South Africa. He and Donny are cowards under that performative masculine veneer. However, while Elon lived in Canada with his mom’s family, he was exposed to his grandfather’s belief system. Maye’s dad was one of the principals of Technocracy, Inc. Our Pete, the engineer, needs to do a little reading about this entity. Wikipedia has a page for it.
Today, it’s been revised by a guru named Curtis Yarvin, who is followed by Silicon Valley tech executives like Musk and Thiel. He aims to replace the world’s governments with Network States or Technates. These Technocrats believe that engineers and scientists should rule over us and provide everyone with abundance. While Musk hasn’t claimed it while working with Donny, he has advocated for a UBI. He believes AI will create extreme wealth for everyone on the planet so we will all benefit from it.
Musk and Donny have social media outlets to sell this to the masses in other countries besides the US.
Presuming that courts make a final determination for the plaintiffs, AND that the regime immediately reverses their actions to comply with the law and the Constitution (the former will take months, and the latter assumes facts not in evidence), permanent and irreversible damage will have been done to the US government. The status of the US on the world stage has been irreversibly diminished – we are clearly an unreliable partner, and neither out word nor or written commitments can be trusted.
There is no going back. These few months have irreversibly altered the country, and the world.
I’m glad that people are protesting. To clarify that, I’m glad that white people are protesting. If the white people weren’t there, I believe that we would be experiencing a violation of the Posse Comitatis Act. Sadly the protesters are protesting Elon Musk more than the violations of law and disregard for the Constitution.
We discovered during Orange Jesus (OJ) I, there is no punishment for failure to uphold your oath of office. I keep getting surveys from the DNC, asking if I think OJ should be impeached. That just might be the most stupid thing the Dems have thought up yet. He wasn’t found guilty either of the two times he was impeached when the Dems had both houses.
I’m feeling a bit like Sancho Panza.
Warren, I think the words you wrote today were used, in some form, after Hitler took over the German government in 1934. Yes, the world was forever altered. Germany, after the war, became a totally different nation with a new-found culture that finally embraced democracy.
So, yes. I agree that we’ll never be the same nation to ourselves OR the world after this disgusting and horrifying episode in our history. If the psychopaths don’t start the nuclear war that destroys all of humanity, and something “dramatic” happens before that, humanity may survive. But the nagging question remains: If the U.S. stops being the world’s policeman, who will stop Iran, North Korea or Russia from starting the nuclear holocaust?
As someone on this blog once stated: Real stupidity is doing something while completely disregarding the consequences of those actions. Those in Russia, Iran and North Korea are very, very stupid.
Perhaps this blog could also address the Trump regime’s latest assault on the Constitution and the rule of law: executive orders selectively and arbitrarily revoking the security clearances of any law firm that represents anyone he deems an “enemy”, and banning attorneys associated with those forms from entering federal buildings including courts. The goal being, of course, not just to spitefully punish “enemies”, but to make it impossible for anyone the regime accuses, especially those it accuses of security-sensitive crimes involving classified information, from having legal representation.
It seems to a layman that this would be functionally a bill of attainder, which is Constitutionally prohibited, as well as a violation of the right of the accused to legal counsel. But IANAL.
I’ve been watching Bernie Sanders speeches and think that we need a legal framework that reins in the actions of oligarchs and authoritarianism within our country. We cannot allow “We the People” to continue paying these huge tax breaks to the ultra rich. I agree with Bernie that these well off individuals have a psychiatric illness to want more and more money when they are living comfortably.
Todd, I’m always up for more research.
MTV, the Big Three, all share dysfunctional upbringings that defined normal as what their family predecessors did.
While that is what all of us do and are, the rest of us aren’t in a position to impose it on 330,000,000 and more, other people.
Through my life I have tried to teach and learn and meet people face to face but no imposition for me.
When a slight majority of voters elect a sociopathic, narcissist who shows his complete disregard for the checks and balances of US Constitution and bill of rights, what do we expect? Pardoning insurrectionist from 1/6 and giving signals to stand by, appointing sycophants that put their loyalty to trump over their oath of office to the Constitution, allowing a libertine capitalist technocrat to take over vital information of Americans for their un-American aims, while slashing thousands of governments employes from their jobs is tearing down US legal established order. Public enemy #one is in the White House and is setting up ways to rob us blind. Five million dollar passes to citizenship, firing of 18 inspectors general that oversee waste and fraud, suspicious crypto currency deals that are real Ponzi schemes, taking down guards/checks on foreign money sources being funneled into his various money laundering schemes.
When the press, politicians and Americans that call out and push back on the conspiracies of trump are labeled “enemies” we got a problem. We’re not in Kansas anymore!
Trump is doing the Trumpian thing, the only thing he knows how to do.
Rose, part of Trump’s inner landscape is his paranoia, and paranoid’s, like Nixon, need enemies.
The Sahel Sanction. Stay tuned.
And if the millions of us who receive Social Security no longer receive our invested money to live on; Trump’s BFFs (and I have my own definition of that acronym) who own all of the corporations, companies, factories and businesses will lose us as paying customers. Working family members who might be able to help the elderly and disabled no longer receiving Social Security with food and medications but will have to cut back on what they are spending for other than basics so there will be a loss at that level. Local businesses will lose customers and no longer need employees to serve them adding to the jobless rate.
Those of us on Social Security support businesses providing products and services; our loss of income means their loss of income, loss of employees and loss of tax dollars on their waning income due to loss of customers who can no longer afford their products or service no matter how badly they are needed. Choices between maintaining water, electrical power and heat means cutting back on food, clothing, repairs and maintenance, gas for vehicles and doing without medications. Apparently we are looking at the loss or total disruption of receiving Social Security within then next 30 to 90 days due to lack of employees to continue the jobs which has worked for America for many years. According to reports on the news and showing up in our inboxes our very survival rate is quickly diminishing. Eighty years of trusted service destroyed in less than SIX WEEKS.
The demise of the Constitution happened too quickly to act to protect it and we have no idea where Trump and Musk have buried it to mourn its loss.
https://www.city-journal.org/article/elon-musk-doge-legal-democracy
The amount of government fraud and NGO scams is destroying our democracy. We went from $9 trillion to $36 trillion. Obama got elected by shaming Bush for increasing the debt by $3 Trillion. Hypocrisy abbounds.
Critics nevertheless argue that Musk is acting illegally because he is only an employee, whereas taking action requires appointment as an officer of the United States. It is true, as the Court stated in Buckley v. Valeo, that only officers of the United States can exercise “significant authority under the laws of the United States.” But advice-giving does not constitute such authority, and the Supreme Court has made clear that advisors need not be officers. Musk’s access allows him to see government payments and make recommendations but not act on them himself. The president or the president’s subordinate officers can act, or they can ask Congress for assistance.
Legally, Musk is a special government employee of the Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE is just a renamed version of the previously extant United States Digital Service. President Obama created the USDS within the Executive Office of the President in 2014. He used it to hire outside talent to help improve digital services following the infamously glitchy rollout of Obamacare.
Similarly, Musk and his team are outside talent brought temporarily into the Trump administration. The team is analogous to corporate consultants like those at McKinsey, who go over an institution’s operations exhaustively. Such consultants frequently begin with a data analysis of where corporate payments are going.
There is no doubt that Musk qualifies to be a special government employee—an individual hired for his special expertise for no more than 130 days. He surely has special skill in management and efficiency.