CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS? Trump’s White House Defies a Federal Judge

A judge ordered the White House to restore the passes immediately. Five hours later, the executive branch was still deciding what "immediately" meant.

UPDATE: Access to the White House has been restored for CNN, MS NOW and Politico.

The executive branch is openly ignoring a direct order from the judicial branch. If this isn’t some misunderstanding or accidental administrative delay, it looks like a clear constitutional crisis.

The facts are pretty straightforward. The Trump administration was ordered to immediately restore the credentials it stripped from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico last week, giving all outlets access to the White House. But eight hours after an unambiguous ruling, the Secret Service was still turning these outlets’ staffers away and confiscating badges.

A White House that intentionally ignores a federal judge is the very definition of a constitutional crisis, and this one is unfolding in real time while President Donald Trump is feting Communist Chinese dictator Xi Jinping on the South Lawn.

The White House was directed to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the passes for at least fourteen days, according to Judge Timothy Kelly's exceptionally clear ruling. The fact that the administration is not abiding by this direction is as clear a defiance of a court order as one can imagine.

In 2018, the same judge ordered the White House to give Jim Acosta his pass back. The White House grumbled, talked about writing new decorum rules, but eventually gave it back the same day. This White House has had Kelly’s order since 1:30 this morning, and CNN’s Betsy Klein is still on the sidewalk.

Judge Kelly can order whatever he wants, but he’s not in charge of the White House security gate. The officer who decides whether a badge works or not ultimately answers to the president. If the president gets to decide when “immediately” starts, then every court order he gets from now on will also come with his own interpretation of how he should follow it.

Before the hearing, Trump said that “almost without question and, as usual, we’ll go for appeal.” Kelly then issued an order he noted is generally unappealable. So the administration found another way to appeal it, by just not complying.

Does the nation have an appetite for a debate on whether the executive branch can choose which checks and balances it decides to abide by? If so, the White House picked a test that's well suited for Trump’s base, none of whom will rally in defense of a cable network’s hard pass.

The stakes may look small to half the country that don’t like the outlets that were banned, and the Secret Service had an excuse ready in the day pass it offered Politico’s reporter. A day pass is escorted, temporary access, the lesser thing, and it’s not what Kelly ordered restored. The badges may come back on by lunch, but it won’t matter as much as what Trump is willing to do to show strength while Xi is visiting, which, to my mind, reveals the real incentive here.

This is not only a performative show of strength designed to impress a visiting Chinese dictator, but also an attempt to drive a news cycle that Trump prefers. He’d much rather watch cable news panels debate his authoritarian approach and constitutional crisis than an open discussion of a disastrous Iran war and the high price of gas.

And as a show of strength, nothing makes one look weaker than trying to silence someone with whom he or she is debating. Trump lost the court case and the ban, and now he’s losing the support of anyone in support of the Constitution as well.