Matt Glassman, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute, tells The Recount that the United States may not yet be in a constitutional crisis, but it could be depending on what happens next.
Government watchdogs and experts have raised red flags after a federal judge in Rhode Island on Monday ruled that the Trump administration had defied a court order on unfreezing billions in federal grant dollars.
“This is a big deal,” Glassman said. “The judge obviously is concerned that an order or a federal judge is not being sort of followed.” “Now, he didn’t go all the way and hold anyone in contempt. And so, he seems to be willing to hear them out and what they have to say, and for them to get their act together,” he added. “If you want to give the administration the benefit of the doubt, like, getting a court order fully implemented that is broad enough to restart money everywhere, is things going to fall through the cracks? Probably? Possibly, right? On the other hand, like, it’s not clear that this is sort of unintentional and they were intending to imply with the order.”
As as at least 13 federal rulings have paused or temporarily blocked Trump’s wide-ranging executive orders and actions, Trump and his allies have railed against the “political judges” — and some, such as Vice President JD Vance, have suggested that Trump should defy court orders.
If that happens, Glassman says, the U.S. would enter perilous territory:
“Makes a big difference what happens next. And if people clean it up and the order of the judge is satisfied that it is being followed, not much to it. If the judge decides that, no, this is purposeful, sort of not following an order, you may see sort of the next step here, which would be sort of the judge potentially holding actors in the executive branch in contempt. And then I think you are at sort of a constitutional crisis-level moment.”
