Lesson Plan: Trump Administration Checks and Balances

“In the radical opening weeks of his second term, President Trump has appeared to feel little constraint by any need to show respect for the rule of law.” — Charlie Savage, New York Times reporter

President Trump began the first weeks of his second term with a flurry of executive actions and orders that pushed beyond the limits of executive authority. In other words, even though Congress had passed laws, the president seemingly ignored them as if they didn’t exist. The New York Times is keeping a running list of examples of the president defying legal limits. Here is a diagram that shows some of these examples.

Let’s look more closely at one example from the list. Mr. Trump fired 17 inspectors general, the watchdog officials who hunt for waste, fraud, abuse and illegality in government agencies. But Congress had passed a law that said presidents must give Congress 30 days’ notice and a written “substantive rationale, including detailed and case-specific reasons” before any such removal. Mr. Trump didn’t do any of that.

Mr. Trump’s actions raise serious constitutional questions. As a reminder, the Constitution created three branches of government:

• The legislative branch, Congress, makes the laws.

• The judicial branch, the federal courts, interprets the laws.

• The executive branch, the president, carries out those laws.

The Constitution also created a system of checks and balances, enabling each branch to check the power of the other two branches so no single branch becomes too powerful. (The framers didn’t want another king.)

But what happens if one of those branches steps beyond its legal authority?

In “A Constitutional Crisis?” German Lopez writes:

In the United States, Congress, the president and the courts are supposed to keep an eye on one another — to stop any one branch of government from becoming too powerful. President Trump is showing us what happens when those checks and balances break down.

The president can’t shut down agencies that Congress has funded, yet that’s what Trump did, with Elon Musk’s help, to the U.S. Agency for International Development. The president can’t fire inspectors general without giving lawmakers 30 days’ notice, but Trump dismissed 17 of them anyway. Congress passed a law forcing TikTok to sell or close, and the courts upheld it, but Trump declined to enforce it. “The president is openly violating the law and Constitution on a daily basis,” said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College.

In doing so, Trump has called the bluff of our constitutional system: It works best when each branch does its job with alacrity. Trump’s opponents are filing lawsuits, but courts are slow and deliberative. They can’t keep up with the changes the White House has already implemented. Congress could fight back, but the Republican lawmakers in charge have shrugged, as my colleague Carl Hulse reported. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina conceded that what the administration is doing “runs afoul of the Constitution in the strictest sense.” But, he said, “nobody should bellyache about that.”

Congress, which is currently controlled by the Republican Party (the same party the president belongs to), has largely stayed quiet about Mr. Trump’s actions. That means the federal courts are left with the responsibility to decide if or when the president has exceeded his legal authority. But since Mr. Trump and his administration have seemingly defied so many laws so quickly, will the federal courts be able to keep up?

Are you worried that our system of checks and balances might fail?

In “Why Federal Courts May Be the Last Bulwark Against Trump,” Mattathias Schwartz writes:

More than 40 lawsuits filed in recent days by state attorneys general, unions and nonprofits seek to erect a bulwark in the federal courts against President Trump’s blitzkrieg of executive actions that have upended much of the federal government and challenged the Constitution’s system of checks and balances.

Unlike the opening of Mr. Trump’s first term in 2017, little significant resistance to his second term has arisen in the streets, the halls of Congress or within his own Republican Party. For now at least, lawyers say, the judicial branch may be it.

“The courts really are the front line,” said Skye Perryman, the chief executive of Democracy Forward, which has filed nine lawsuits and won four court orders against the Trump administration.

The multipronged legal pushback has already yielded quick — if potentially fleeting — results. Judicial orders in nine federal court cases will, for a time, partially bind the administration’s hands on its goals. Those include ending automatic citizenship for babies born to undocumented immigrants on U.S. soil; transferring transgender female inmates to male-only prisons; potentially exposing the identities of F.B.I. personnel who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol; coaxing federal workers to accept “deferred resignation” under a tight deadline; and freezing as much as $3 trillion in domestic spending.

The article continues:

But while the executive branch is entrusted with the capacity for swift, decisive action, the judiciary is slow by design, and the legal opposition to Mr. Trump’s opening moves may struggle to keep up with his fire hose of disruption.

Students, read one or both articles and then tell us:

• Have you been following the new Trump administration closely? What’s your reaction to the president’s first few weeks back in office? Have you or your community been affected by any of these actions — and, if so, in what ways? Has Mr. Trump done anything so far that you either support or oppose? Why?

• What is your reaction to the way Mr. Trump and his administration have grabbed powers that the executive branch has never had before, and the way they’ve taken multiple actions that appear to ignore or violate existing laws?

• Are you worried that our system of checks and balances might fail in the face of Mr. Trump’s “fire hose of disruption”? Are you troubled that Congress is neglecting its responsibility to check the power of the president? Are you concerned that the judicial branch won’t be able to provide a sufficient check on the president? Or would you argue that the system is working as it should? Why or why not?

• Whether or not you agree with some of Mr. Trump’s policies, do you think there is cause for concern about his methods of defying existing law? Are constitutional questions about the limits of presidential powers something members of all political parties should be concerned about? Or do you agree with Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, who said that “nobody should bellyache” if what the administration is doing “runs afoul of the Constitution in the strictest sense”? Why?

• Choose one of the examples of Mr. Trump’s actions that seem to defy legal limits and analyze it. What is the action that the Trump administration took? Why might this action be violating U.S. law? Then imagine you are a lawyer representing either the president or the people opposed to this action. What would you argue in court to defend your position?

• A recent Times article reports that law professors believe we are “in the midst of a constitutional crisis.” Do you agree? What do you think it will mean for the country if the Trump administration keeps operating the way it has been for the past several weeks?

• Our system of checks and balances is based on the three branches of government, but ultimately, all three branches serve the American people. What role do everyday Americans have in this moment? For example, demonstrators gathered in cities across the country last week to protest the Trump administration’s flurry of actions, and millions of calls have poured in to members of Congress. What power do these actions have? Whether you support or oppose what is happening in the U.S. government right now, what can you do to voice your opinion?

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.