The last check on Trump can't do it alone

What's the consequence for a unitary executive who defies the courts and ignores Congress?

Loren L. AliKhan’s vote to become a U.S. District judge couldn’t have been closer. Republicans upbraided her for favoring shutdowns of religious services during the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in 50 hard GOP votes against her nomination on the Senate floor in December 2023. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris was required to break the 50-50 partisan tie, making AliKhan the first South Asian woman to serve on D.C.’s district court by just a hair. At the time, the AliKhan judgeship was inconspicuous to the general public and even many in Washington whose eyes glaze over when presented with lists of lower court judicial nominations passed in the dark of a December night. But 14 months later, the perch AliKhan won would prove exigent as she became the judge to halt President Trump’s blanket federal spending freeze. Trump’s move “potentially run roughshod over a bulwark of the Constitution by interfering with Congress’s appropriation of federal funds,” AliKhan wrote in her opinion. Suddenly the 41-year-old’s razor-thin appointment appeared momentous — the last guardrail against Trump’s ravenous exertion of federal power.

Or was it?

Even after the ruling, state agencies reported they were still having trouble accessing federal funds, including billions of dollars for infrastructure projects approved under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. It took another U.S. District judge — appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013 — to call out Trump for violating the court order. “These pauses in funding violate the plain text of the temporary restraining order,” wrote Judge John McConnell of Providence, Rhode Island on Monday. On Tuesday, there was little indication the Trump administration was complying with McConnell’s declaration. Think of it this way, football fans: The courts are essentially referees when it comes to American policy and political disputes. The referee has tossed the flag on the field and called a penalty on the offense. But in this instance, the offense is refusing to move 15 yards back and retry the play another way. Team Trump is essentially telling the referee he has exceeded his authority in calling their play back. Team Trump is playing at home — riding favorable approval ratings at the outset of the game. The roar of the crowd is with them. But they’re setting up a showdown with not only the opposition — but the rules that govern the game itself. “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” declared Vice President JD Vance, offering the clearest indication that the Trump administration is prepared to defy the checks-and-balance system that undergirds the country’s foundation. “Right now we’re seeing a remarkably ambitious president, we