Trump's war on judges

 Roll Call - Days after Judge James E. Boasberg ruled against President Donald Trump’s plans to quickly deport alleged members of a Venezuelan criminal gang, the president called for Congress to remove the judge from the bench.....

Trump has a history of criticizing judges, but he and his administration in his second term have sought to more broadly undermine the third branch of government, lashing out at judges who rule against the president and calling for limits on the power of federal district courts to stymie aggressive executive branch efforts.

Boasberg found there was probable cause that the Trump administration engaged in criminal contempt of court in not complying with a court order to halt the deportation of migrants under a 1798 law known as the Alien Enemies Act.

And in a separate high-profile immigration case, critics say the Trump administration is openly disregarding a Supreme Court ruling that ordered officials to try to return a mistakenly deported immigrant.

Taken together, Trump administration actions have sparked debate about whether the United States is in — or is headed toward — a constitutional crisis, with critics saying the administration is pushing to diminish institutions that can check Trump’s executive power while he engages in authoritarian moves.

“The takeaway is that the Trump administration is pushing the boundaries of what it can get away with. It is very clear that Donald Trump and his enablers would like to be kings,” said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School and constitutional law scholar. “If he pushes and pushes and pushes and nobody pushes back, he can just govern as an authoritarian with nobody else to pay attention to.”