President Donald Trump’s losses in court are suddenly piling up on many crucial fronts at once. Most of his tariffs were just ruled illegal, prompting him to explode in fury. An appeals court blocked Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations. And a judge invalidated Trump’s cancellation of grants to Harvard. There’s a big through line here that deserves attention: Judges are taking a very hard line on Trump’s use of pretexts to justify his illegal actions—on many of the issues where his abuses of power are most flagrant. But what happens when all this collides with the highest court in the land? We talked to Michigan University law professor Leah Litman, author of Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes. She explains why Trump’s manufacturing of pretexts is central to his consolidation of authoritarian power, why it’s temporarily heartening that he’s facing many setbacks in these areas, and what it will look like once it all goes to the high court. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
PODCAST
Raging Trump Suddenly Facing Worsening Legal Losses on Many Key Fronts
As Trump is hit by mounting failures in court on his most critical initiatives, a legal observer explains why there’s reason to be temporarily heartened by what we’re seeing—and why it could all soon go very wrong.
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