The U.S. Supreme Court faces a “looming” question as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, according to legal analyst Steve Vladeck.
Since defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election on November 5, Trump has made big promises on issues like the economy and immigration. He argues that his victory, which saw him carry every battleground state and make substantial gains in deep blue states, gives him a “mandate” to enact far-reaching conservative policy in his second term.
However, he will still face several checks on his power, including a closely dividedCongress and the Supreme Court, which blocked several of his policies during his first four years in office despite its conservative tilt.
The court became more conservative during Trump’s first term, as he was able to appoint three conservative justices to the bench. However, those justices haven’t always voted in lockstep with the traditionally conservative, and their willingness to go against Trump will be key in determining just how far he can go on his campaign promises.
Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, told The Washington Post in a new interview published Friday that he believes the Supreme Court “will stand up to [Trump] in some,” but not all, cases.
The real question, however, will be how Trump responds to the court ruling against him. Vladeck questioned whether Trump would comply with “adverse” court decisions or if “we going to see, the sort of break the glass conversations.”
“That, to me, is the real big picture question looming over the court right now,” Vladeck said.
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s transition team for comment via email.
During Trump’s first term, he generally abided by Supreme Court rulings but faced backlash after administration officials rejected new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, despite a SCOTUS ruling that put the program pack in place.
Some legal and immigration experts viewed the decision to reject the applications as a violation of the ruling.
The court handed Trump a big legal win this year when it ruled that he could not be charged for any official actions in the federal case into his actions surrounding the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. That case has since been closed following the election.
However, it also handed him several losses during his first four years in office, which his administration complied with. The Court blocked parts of his travel ban on a handful of Muslim-majority countries and rejected his bid to block New York prosecutors from obtaining his financial records.
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