President Donald Trump’s Justice Department made a claim in court this week that left CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams stupefied.
During a hearing about the validity of the White House ballroom project, DOJ lawyers explained that the work had been done so quickly that there was nothing courts could have done to reverse it — and when the judge asked if, by that logic, it would be legal for the Trump administration to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty if they did it too quickly for there to be a legal challenge, they agreed.
None of that is how the law actually works, said Williams.
“That’s ludicrous,” Williams told anchor Kasie Hunt. “I don’t know what the question was, but I will tell you the answer is that is ludicrous. That is incorrect.”
The idea of there being a White House ballroom isn’t inherently a bad one, Williams said, and there could be a good case made for it. But, he continued, “the courts have the power to enjoin actions by Congress and the president. That’s how our courts have worked from the beginning.”
To claim that a president can exercise “unilateral authority” with no oversight from courts if they just do it in a certain way, he said, is “just incorrect.”
“I’m not stating an opinion here,” added Williams, who has been a frequent critic of the Trump administration’s legal strategies. “This is not a feeling or a vibe that is simply how the separation of powers work in the country. That is incorrect.”
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