A constitutional scholar and Professor at the Yale Law School has expressed his concerns over Donald Trump possibly choosing to outright defy the Supreme Court and the American judiciary as a whole. Robert Post, who is considered to be eminent in his field, in a recent conversation opined that the possibility was “terrifying.”
Speaking to the Daily Beast, Post said, “If push comes to shove and Trump says, ‘I’m not bound by law,’ then the rest of us in the country have to regard him as an outlaw, literally somebody outside the law. Nobody is prepared for this moment. It’s terrifying. It’s absolutely terrifying.”
Robert Post then shared how JD Vance was a student when he was the dean of the law school. However, Post didn’t seem to recall ever seeing him there, saying, “He was JD Hamel then. I shook his hand and gave him his diploma when I was dean, but I don’t remember him.”
And while in recent times, Vance has been very outspoken about restricting the powers of the judiciary and seemingly calling for the presidency to wield ultimate power in the United States, he was pro-judiciary when he was running for Senate in 2021.
JD Vance, during an appearance on a podcast at the time, cited how President Andrew Jackson decided to openly defy Chief Justice John Marshall’s ruling, directly resulting in the death of thousands of Cherokee Indians.
To the unaware, Chief Justice John Marshall, in 1832, passed a ruling that the Cherokee Indians were a sovereign nation and that President Andrew Jackson had no right to remove them from their treat-awarded lands in Georgia.
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Jackson, however, defied the ruling and forced the Indians on a march, known as the Trail of Tears, to Oklahoma that resulted in the deaths of thousands.
Speaking about the incident on the 2021 podcast, JD Vance said, “When the courts stop you, stand before the country, like Andrew Jackson did, and say, ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.'”
The irony was that Jackson didn’t stand by the ruling and JD Vance was quoting a disputed comment made by the former President after he forced the Indians out of their lands in northern Georgia.
Irrespective, it felt like Vance was trying to emphasize respecting the judiciary and especially the Supreme Court. But now, the same person has contrastingly said, “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
To the uninformed, JD Vance had recently made an X post that read, “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal.
If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal.
Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 9, 2025
Robert Post weighed in on Vance’s background as a law student and his current statements that seem to defy the law, saying, “He was kind of weaseling it in the way in which he wrote. It’s taken to be an invitation to defiance.”
Post added, “And I think that’s not an unreasonable reading, but technically he left himself an out. And I think any person of good sense would do that.”
And while Robert Post didn’t have anything to say about Donald Trump or his closest ally at the moment, Elon Musk, their statements also have to be taken into account.
In a recent X post, Musk said, “Democracy in America is being destroyed by judicial coup,” further adding “An activist judge is not a real judge.”
Democracy in America is being destroyed by judicial coup.
An activist judge is not a real judge. https://t.co/zRb398NyA0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 11, 2025
President Donald Trump has made quite a few contradicting or questionable statements himself. His most recent one is, “It seems hard to believe that judges want to stop us from looking for corruption.”
He then insinuated that the judges themselves were corrupt, saying, “Maybe we have to look at the judges, because I think that’s a very serious violation.”
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The real estate mogul, whose legal tribulations include a hush money trial involving an adult film star, further said, “No judge should, frankly, be allowed to make that kind of a decision. It’s a disgrace.” He has also proudly beat his own drum, claiming, “I always abide by the courts.”
Robert Post ended his note in an ominous way, seemingly worried about people being tolerant of such outright defiance by Donald Trump and his disregard for the judiciary, saying “The people have to be aroused. And if the people tolerate it the way they’re tolerating it now, it’s going to be very bad.”
