Charles Reid, professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, recently spoke with the editorial board at the Minnesota Star Tribune for a piece on the rule of law and the role that Congress is supposed to play in the balance of power.
From the article:
From a constitutional law perspective, “it’s clear that President Trump is testing the boundaries of our constitutional separation of powers through these series of actions, and we need to see who, if anyone, will check this assertiveness,” said Jason Marisam, an associate professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
Lawmakers of both parties should lend the legislative branch support amid an executive branch assault, said Charles Reid, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. “The Constitution envisions separations of powers and envisions a Congress that is always perpetually jealous of its prerogatives,” Reid said. But “what the framers did not understand at the time was ideas like party unity.”
Nowadays, said Marisam, “there aren’t so many institutionalists left in Congress who are going to fight to preserve the congressional prerogative and are more likely to fall in line with the party leader.”
That’s what appears to be happening in Washington. Or not happening, in the case of congressional Republicans, who are offering no challenge to Trump’s reconstruction agenda.
Congress should be holding hearings on some of the executive actions and resisting Trump’s usurpation of their role, said Pearson, who added that “this isn’t happening because Republicans in Congress and President Trump are acting as a team instead of maintaining their separate goals in our system.”
It’s accepted and expected, with a president of the same party in the White House, that congressional Republicans would be supportive. But not supplicant, as they have in so many occasions, including allowing Elon Musk to end a congressionally created and funded program like USAID, which Musk crowed he had “put through the wood chipper.” ...
Amplifying the international injury is Trump’s musing to “own” Gaza and displace millions of Palestinians, which most of the world, allies and adversaries alike, would correctly consider ethnic cleansing. Predictably but disappointingly, congressional Republicans registered little to no dissent on the legality of Trump’s vision, which the White House did appear to partly walk back after wide international condemnation.
But the fact remains: Not even three weeks into Trump’s second presidency, there are “the contours of a constitutional crisis,” said Reid.
