White House Criticizes Judge for Blocking Musk Team’s Access to Treasury Data
www.nytimes.com
“… The situation could pose a fundamental test of America’s rule of law. If the administration fails to comply with the emergency order, it is unclear how it might be enforced.
The Constitution says that a president “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” but courts have rarely been tested by a chief executive who has ignored their orders.
Federal officials have sometimes responded to adverse decisions with dawdling or grudging compliance. Outright disobedience is exceedingly rare. There has been no clear example of “open presidential defiance of court orders in the years since 1865,” according to a
Harvard Law Review article published in 2018.
…
In a statement on Saturday, Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, called the lawsuits “frivolous” and said they were “akin to children throwing pasta at the wall to see if it will stick.”
“Grandstanding government efficiency speaks volumes about those who’d rather delay much-needed change with legal shenanigans then work with the Trump administration of ridding the government of waste, fraud and abuse,” he said. “This activist judge has resorted to locking the Senate-confirmed secretary of Treasury out of his role.”
Although the court order mandates an immediate halt to the Musk employees’ access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, it was not immediately clear when or if they would fully comply. Nor was it clear how the attorneys general would monitor the administration’s actions. …”
www.ncronline.org
