Judges across the country have taken action to block President Donald Trump’s agenda since he took office in January. Vice President JD Vance triggered a social media frenzy on Sunday by affirming his support for Trump’s executive authority.
“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal,” Vance posted on X. “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’s comments followed a ruling that blocked the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing personal data. Judges in New Hampshire, Seattle and Maryland have blocked Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship. New York Attorney General Leitita James advised hospitals to ignore Trump’s executive order ending sex change procedures for minors.
Democrats were quick to lash out at Vance on social media on Sunday, equating his comments to “tyranny” and “lawlessness.” Illinois Gov. JV Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential contender, said Vance’s comments mean “the Trump administration intends to break the law.”
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“JD Vance is saying the quiet part out loud: the Trump administration intends to break the law. America is a nation of laws. The courts make sure we follow the laws. The VP doesn’t control the courts, and the President cannot ignore the Constitution. No one is above the law,” Pritzker said.
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Pete Buttigieg, former Transportation secretary and a 2020 presidential candidate, said the vice president does not decide what is legal.
“In America, decisions about what is legal and illegal are made by courts of law. Not by the Vice President,” Buttigieg said.
Liz Cheney, the former Republican congresswoman who led the Jan. 6 Select Committee and campaigned for former Vice President Kamala Harris, accused Vance of tyranny.
David Hogg, the first Gen Z vice chair of the Democratic Party, said Vance’s comments are a power grab by the executive branch.
“He’s saying this to normalize a power grab by the executive to consolidate the power of the president and make him a king,” Hogg said. “If liberals ever said this, conservatives would (rightfully) lose their godd— minds.”
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy called Vance’s comments the “meat” of the current “constitutional crisis.”
“For those of us who believe we are in the middle of a constitutional crisis, this is the meat of it,” Murphy said on X. “Trump and Vance are laying the groundwork to ignore the courts – democracy’s last line of defense against unchecked executive power.”
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the first-term senator whom Trump nicknamed “Schifty Schiff” on the campaign trail, said Vance’s comment “puts us on a dangerous path to lawlessness.”
“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 to the constitution. And mean it,” Sen. Adam Schiff, D-CA, responded.
Some conservatives fired back at the onslaught of comments. Columnist Kurt Schlichter jumped into the conversation, implying Schiff is a bad lawyer.
Jed Rubenfeld, a Yale Law School professor, lawyer and constitutional scholar, said he agreed with Vance that judges cannot “constitutionally interfere.”
“JD is correct about this, and his examples are exactly right,” Rubenfeld said. “Where the Executive has sole and plenary power under the Constitution – as in commanding military operations or exercising prosecutorial discretion – judges cannot constitutionally interfere.”
More X users, who joined the debate, said Vance and his supporters’ comments are ironic. AJ Delgado, a self-described “MAGA original but now proudly anti-Trump,” said those attacking Vance lacked principle.
“Weren’t you all cheering when a federal judge halted Biden’s student loan forgiveness? You have ZERO principles,” she wrote on X.
When the Supreme Court ruled against President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, he did not waver in his commitment to relieving student debt, vowing “to keep going” despite the court’s order.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., during a February 2024 episode of “Pod Save America,” gave credit to Biden for finding alternative ways to alleviate student loan debt.
“Whatever tools he’s got, he’s sharpening and building some new tools through his Department of Education. We are now at about just a little shy of 4 million people who have had their student loan debt canceled. Joe Biden is just staying after it,” Warren said.
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