Chuck Darwin<p>Trump’s disregard for US constitution is ‘a blitzkrieg on the law’</p><p>Scholars warn of the president’s lawlessness in actions such as federal funding freeze and birthright citizenship order</p><p>Donald Trump’s rapid-fire and controversial moves <br />that have ranged from banning birthright citizenship to firing 18 inspectors general means the US president <br />has shown a greater willingness than his predecessors to <br />violate the constitution and federal law, <br />some historians and legal scholars say.</p><p>These scholars pointed to other Trump actions they say blatantly broke the law, <br />such as freezing trillions of dollar in federal spending and dismissing members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), <br />-- even though they were confirmed by the Senate and had several years left in their terms.</p><p>“Without any doubt Donald Trump is the most lawless and scofflaw president we have ever seen in the history of the United States,” <br />said <a href="https://c.im/tags/Laurence" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Laurence</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Tribe" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Tribe</span></a>, one of the nation’s leading constitutional scholars <br />and a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School.</p><p>Tribe said Trump has carried out<br /> “a blitzkrieg on the law and the constitution. </p><p>The very fact that the illegal actions have come out with the speed of a rapidly firing Gatling gun makes it very hard for people to focus on any one of them. </p><p>That’s obviously part of the strategy.”</p><p>Tribe said the so-called pause in federal spending that the Trump administration ordered last Monday <br />“was a clear usurpation of a coordinate branch’s [Congress’s] exclusive power of the purse”.</p><p>Before the Trump administration rescinded the freeze two days later, <br />several groups had sued to stop the freeze, <br />saying Trump had violated the constitution and the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, <br />which lets presidents withhold funds in limited circumstances, <br />but only if they first follow several special procedures <br />– which legal experts said Trump failed to do.</p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/Erwin" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Erwin</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Chemerinsky" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Chemerinsky</span></a>, dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, <br />also voiced dismay at what he said was Trump’s flagrant flouting of the law in his first few days back in office.</p><p>“A stunning number of his executive actions clearly violate the constitution and federal law,” Chemerinsky said. </p><p>“I cannot think of any president who has ever so ignored the constitution as extensively in the first 10 days of office as this.</p><p>“I certainly doubt that any president has done so much lawless so quickly that affects so many people,” Chemerinsky continued. </p><p>“The freeze of federal spending potentially affects tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of people.”</p><p>That freeze caused alarm and chaos across the nation as it disrupted Medicaid payments, <br />childcare programs, <br />meals for seniors, <br />housing subsidies and <br />special ed programs. </p><p>❌Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the office of management and budget, said the freeze was needed to stop <br />“the use of federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies”.</p><p>❇️Federal judges moved quickly to temporarily block the spending freeze and the ban on birthright citizenship. </p><p>Last Tuesday, a federal district court judge in Washington DC, <a href="https://c.im/tags/Loren" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>Loren</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/AliKhan" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>AliKhan</span></a>, suspended the spending freeze. </p><p>Facing huge confusion and criticism over the freeze, <br />the Trump administration rescinded it on Wednesday.<br /><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/01/trump-executive-orders-constitution-law?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/us-news/2025/f</span><span class="invisible">eb/01/trump-executive-orders-constitution-law?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other</span></a></p>