#executive-overreach

#executive-overreach

On the [government's] reading, the president would have had no need ever to seek the Senate's advice and consent for his [US attorney] appointments. Whenever there was a fair prospect of the Senate's rejecting his preferred nominee, the president could have appointed that individual unilaterally to serve ad infinitum. It is unthinkable that such an obvious means for the executive to expand its power would have been overlooked by Congress.

Trump clearly perceives himself in such royal terms—he's said as much. But as we show in the new season of our investigative podcast series Master Plan: The Kingmakers, Trump did not create the kingly authority he is now employing. He is exercising powers concentrated in the executive branch by previous presidents and courts.

If there's one figure in American history who would not stand for any of the present nonsense, it'd be Thomas Paine. The revolutionary pamphleteer hated the idea of monarchs trampling on people behind the veil of absolute immunity so much that he followed up the American Revolution by rolling over to France and getting elected to the revolutionary government without knowing how to speak French.

During his first year back in office, President Donald Trump amassed an unprecedented amount of power in pursuit of his far-reaching agenda. His quests to crush the Democratic Party's electoral power, seize control over the economy, and deport millions of immigrants were all actively abetted by the Supreme Court's Republican-appointed justices. Time and again-often over the shadow docket, with no explanation-the 6-3 supermajority cleared the path for Trump's aggressive executive overreach.

* Government shutdown comes for bar exams. [ ABA Journal] * Kash Patel fires FBI's aviation director after media caught Kash Patel using taxpayer-funded FBI jets to go on dates. [ Bloomberg Law News] * Judges rule that the White House can't selectively shut down statutory obligations to target his political enemies. [ Law360] * ChatGPT has supposedly stopped giving legal advice, but... [ Artificial Lawyer]

It's long been evident that the MAGA siege on American governance is a glorified wrecking job, but this week's installment has been just a little too on-the-nose: After pledging not to molest the White House in the process of constructing a $250 million ballroom addition seemingly cribbed from the gaudier reaches of Versailles, President Donald Trump has now approved the demolition of the structure's entire east wing.

The Trump administration may be moving away from using individual investigations to try to force colleges into compliance with the president's agenda and instead encourage compliance by giving institutions that demonstrate adherence to his policies a competitive advantage in obtaining research funding. The new plan, which Post reporters heard about from two anonymous White House officials, would change the grant-application process and give a leg up to institutions that conform to President Donald Trump's agenda regarding admissions, hiring and other campus policies. If the plan takes effect, the Trump administration will no longer have to go after universities one by one through investigations and corresponding penalties, but rather can induce compliance from hundreds of institutions at once.

During the past week alone, federal judges across the country have rejected some of the most important and far-reaching of Trump's initiatives-from his efforts to reshape the global economy with tariffs and mobilize the military to act as police in American cities to his refusal to spend billions of dollars in congressionally appropriated funds.

He is breaking with decades of precedent and allegedly the law to attempt to fire Lisa Cook, a Biden-era appointee to the bank's board of governors. It appears to be part of his campaign to demand lower interest rates, which is a lousy policy when inflation hasn't quite cooled. Trump has done little otherwise to bring prices down. His aggressive tariff regime, certainly, will punish many families - especially when it's not coupled with a new industrial policy or jobs program.