Radical constitutionalism
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A battle-tested D.C. bureaucrat and self-described Christian nationalist is drawing up detailed plans for a sweeping expansion of presidential power in a second Trump administration. Russ Vought, who served as the former president’s budget chief, calls his political strategy for razing long-standing guardrails “radical constitutionalism.”
He has helped craft proposals for Donald Trump to deploy the military to quash civil unrest, seize more control over the Justice Department and assert the power to withhold congressional appropriations — and that’s just on Trump’s first day back in office.
Vought, 48, is poised to steer this agenda from an influential perch in the White House, potentially as Trump’s chief of staff, according to some people involved in discussions about a second term who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
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I'd be somewhat less alarmed if I believed the Supreme Court was going to assert the primacy of the separation of powers that was enshrined in our constitutional system by Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison. Sadly, their recent tendencies to overturn precedents does not inspire hope, let alone confidence, in the presently constituted court.
Big Al
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Russell Vought profile in the Atlantic.
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I'd be somewhat less alarmed if I believed the Supreme Court was going to assert the primacy of the separation of powers that was enshrined in our constitutional system by Chief Justice John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison. Sadly, their recent tendencies to overturn precedents does not inspire hope, let alone confidence, in the presently constituted court.
Big Al
@Big_Al It seems more than a little ironic to me that Marbury v. Madison "established" the court's right to determine the constitutionality of act of congress, considering that the actual opinion of the case was rubbish. All born out of a very nasty political fight.
As Leonard Levy says in the book I'm reading*, "It is... one of the most flagrant specimens of judicial activism and, from the standpoint of judicial craftsmanship, resulted in one of the worst opinions ever delivered by the Supreme Court. . . . As a matter of judicial politics, however, it ranks among the craftiest in our constitutional history." (Emphasis mine)
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The US has been a struggle from the get go.
It is really wise to have a single branch of the government wield the power of judicial review? Current events make me question.
- "Original Intent and the Framers' Constitution"
