Opinion | When a President Defies a Judge’s Order

To the Editor:

I applaud Adam Liptak for his reporting in “Defiance of Judge’s Order Stokes Fears of Constitutional Crisis, or Worse” (news analysis, March 20). He raises an important question: “Must the president obey court orders he contends are wrong, while he appeals them?” I would think so, but President Trump seems to have little respect for judicial procedures and judges.

Mr. Liptak quotes Andrew C. McCarthy in National Review as saying, “It’s all right to complain bitterly about court orders, but they are not to be ignored, much less knowingly flouted.”

In my opinion, the president’s hubris and impulse control problems are getting in the way of his judgment. Hopefully, Supreme Court justices will confront him on this.

Janet C. Lindeman
Bend, Ore.

To the Editor:

In response to President Trump’s call for Judge James E. Boasberg to be impeached, Chief Justice John Roberts said, “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”

His statement may be accurate and well intentioned, but it is too late. He and his five conservative colleagues left the barn door open by granting a president immunity in Trump v. United States (2024), a decision written by Chief Justice Roberts. A president now need never be constrained by fear of violating the law. To give presidents immunity is to declare that they are kings.

Have we changed overnight from a democratic republic to a monarchy? How will this president-king be constrained?

John E. Colbert
Arroyo Seco, N.M.

To the Editor:

As the will of Republicans in Congress to constrain the president from doing his worst has been neutralized, it has been left to the judicial branch to give any remaining meaning to checks and balances.

And when a minion of President Trump announces without hesitation that the directive imposed upon the president’s action was not worth the paper it was printed on, there is virtually nothing left standing between him and dictatorship. It has all happened with such speed.

This was not merely a plane carrying a group of immigrants to El Salvador. Also on board was our very way of government, taken hostage and in grave danger of disappearing forever.

Robert S. Nussbaum
Fort Lee, N.J.

To the Editor:

Judge James E. Boasberg is playing to the uninformed in his suggestion that terms in the Alien Enemies Act “really relate to hostile acts perpetrated by enemy nations.” The act actually refers to a “nation or government.” The word “government” by definition can include the nonnational management structure of groups and organizations like the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua. Similarly, calling the act a “wartime law” is precluded by the fact that a “predatory incursion” may occur without a declaration of war.

The act also provides the president of the United States broad authority to provide “for the public safety” and the ability to order the removal of alien enemies on the sole warrant of the president without judicial approval.

William T. Fidurski
Clark, N.J.

To the Editor:

There has been talk of whether we’re facing a “constitutional crisis.” The better question is whether we are witnessing a constitutional death. The Constitution has taken a number of recent blows; together they are fatal.

How can it be supposed that the Constitution hasn’t, in effect, been amended to provide for an authoritarian form of government featuring the routine harassment and intimidation of judges, strong-arming of legislators and at least sotto voce support for political violence? A government restricted by nothing other than Donald Trump’s will.

The “crisis” is over. We’re now at the funeral.

Richard Pertz
Remsen, N.Y.

Gen Z Has Had It

To the Editor:

Gen Z is suffering and Congress should respond.

As a 17-year-old living in North Dakota, I can testify that our generation finds this nation guilty of treason against America’s youth. This is a wake-up call for Congress. It must fulfill its oath to the Constitution.

Our generation has grown weary of the war between conservative and “woke” and of the immature bickering between adult officials in office. This isn’t about ideology or policy; this is about the people. In preschool, we’re taught to clean up after our own mess and obey the golden rule. It would seem that our members of Congress failed to learn it.

My generation will learn from your ignorant decisions and weak behavior. We won’t repeat the mistakes made by the politics of the old; instead, we will advance the blessings ushered in by the politics of the new.

Carter Hass
Valley City, N.D.