Democratic senators press Trump nominees on whether officials can ever ignore judges' orders
Several of President Donald Trump’s nominees for senior Justice Department positions faced questions from Senate Democrats on Wednesday about whether it would ever be lawful for a president to defy a court order, with the nominees largely suggesting they couldn't fully answer without more specifics.
Several of President Donald Trump’s nominees for senior Justice Department positions faced questions from Senate Democrats on Wednesday about whether it would ever be lawful for a president to defy a court order, with the nominees largely suggesting they couldn't fully answer without more specifics.
“It would be too case-specific for me to say, to make a blanket statement about that,” Aaron Reitz, whom Trump has nominated to be an assistant attorney general, told Sen. Dick Durbin, of Illinois, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
Durbin followed up by asking in what circumstances Reitz, who is chief of staff for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, would justify ignoring a court order.
“What I’m saying is that there are some instances in which a public official is lawfully bound by the holding of a particular court, in which case that official would in fact, lawfully be required to be bound by it,” Reitz said. “I can’t speak though, Ranking Member Durbin, for all instances in which that dynamic may or may not be at play given a certain lawsuit.”
The issue has come to the fore early in the Trump administration as Vice President JD Vance, among others, has criticized the number and breadth of judicial rulings against Trump administration policies, posting on social media that "judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power."
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