Republican Vice President JD Vance claimed federal judges aren’t allowed to act as a check and balance on the President Sunday, taking his boss’s attacks on the U.S. Constitution to a new level.
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance posted to X (formerly Twitter) Sunday morning.
The post comes a day after a federal judge blocked Elon Musk’s unelected DOGE team (Department of Government Efficiency) from accessing sensitive records from the Treasury Department, including millions of Americans’ social security numbers and bank account information.
In an effort to slash government spending and funding to crucial programs, Musk has used private teams with no security clearance to gain access to the records. Democratic members of Congress have voiced opposition but were shut out of government offices. Meanwhile, 19 Democratic state Attorneys General sued the Trump Administration, leading to Saturday’s ruling.
Constitution is clear: Only judges can interpret laws
VP Vance’s statement suggesting federal judges can’t check the president’s power directly contradicts the Constitution. While Congress has the power to collect taxes and decide spending, the president has the power to command the military and fill vacancies. Yet, Article III of the Constitution gives judges the sole power to interpret laws.
“The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made…” it reads.
VP Vance’s statement suggesting presidents can decide when or when not to follow a judge’s ruling is just the latest attempt by the Trump Administration to challenge the rule of law. Three federal judges have blocked Trump’s executive order seeking to alter birthright citizenship. When Trump tried to unilaterally freeze federal funding that was already allocated by Congress, a federal judge blocked it as well.
Despite the rulings, judges have no way to enforce them, giving Trump an opening to simply ignore them. At least 23 states claim Trump is ignoring the ruling on his federal aid freeze as nonprofits across the country continue to report not being able to access funds. States like Oklahoma could lose $14 billion in grant funding if the freeze goes into effect.
Vance refers to judge’s ruling as lawless
Democratic California Senator Adam Schiff responded to VP Vance’s authoritarian statement Sunday.
“JD, we both went to law school. But we don’t have to be lawyers to know that ignoring court decisions we don’t like puts us on a dangerous path to lawlessness. We just have to swear an oath the constitution,” he wrote.
Doubling down on his challenge to the Constitution, Vance suggested judges who rule against Trump were lawless. The Vice President retweeted the following post from a conservative lawyer:
“What if the judicial decision is lawless? A key component of the constitutional framework is judicial modesty, which is backed up by the fact that the judiciary has nothing to compel obedience, except its credibility.”
Vance’s own past statements indicate he and Trump are gearing up for a constitutional showdown.
“And when the courts — because you will get taken to court — and when the courts stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say: ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it,’” Vance said on a podcast in 2021.
The only mechanism federal judges have to enforce their rulings is to send U.S. Marshalls, but with the Department of Justice seemingly under Trump’s control, it’s unclear how that would play out.
People across the country, including in reliably red states like Oklahoma, have marched at State Capitols protesting Trump’s agenda.
“They didn’t teach me about the things that led up to Hitler,” John Ruble, a protestor from Norman, Oklahoma, said during a protest last week at the Oklahoma State Capitol.
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