Recently, the federal courts have slapped-down President Trump’s immigration plans.  He has made it known what he thinks of the federal courts and the judges—the “so-called judges,” as he put it.  I anticipate more cases to be filed against his executive orders or other things he tries to do.  Can President Trump ignore the Supreme Court?

The answer, off the top of everyone’s head, is NO.

We say that because, in recent years, all presidents have obeyed the decisions of the Supreme Court.  Even at his most combative time, President Richard Nixon, during the Watergate mess, never challenged the rulings of the Supreme Court that ran against him.  The ruling that ordered him to release the tape recordings of conversations in the oval office—that eventually sank his presidency—were obeyed.

But President Trump is different than other presidents . . .

Would President Trump ignore the Supreme Court?  And if he did, are there any precedents for this behavior?

Let’s go back into the country’s history to the time of President Andrew Jackson.  During his presidency, there were still large Native American groups living in the eastern part of the country.  In Georgia, the state legislature had passed a law that prohibited any non-Indian from going onto Indian land without a license from the state of Georgia.  A young man named Worcester did so and was charged and convicted of the crime under Georgia law.  The case was appealed to the Supreme Court which ruled in Worcester v. Georgia, that the state did not have the right to license anything on the Indian land because Native American land was a sovereign nation.  Neither the state government or the federal government had a right to tell the Indians what to do on their land.

President Jackson was upset.  He spent most of his life either fighting, killing, or removing (as President) Indians from their lands.  This Supreme Court decision really started the doctrine that Indian land was a sovereign nation, like France or China.  President Jackson wrote a letter to a friend, later made public, in which he said the Supreme Court made their decision, now let them enforce it—in other words, the court didn’t have an army—Jackson was commander in chief of the army.  

In the end, Jackson won as he removed, with military help, many Indian tribes from the eastern United States to west of the Mississippi in the tragic “Trail of Tears.”

So why have all American president since then, obeyed the Supreme Court even though the court can’t force anyone to do so?

The United States needs a governmental body that can resolve disputes and give the “final say” to controversial problems.  When presidents accept the rulings of the courts, they recognize the benefit to the country of having a final decision-maker.  We need this as a nation.  Will President Trump ignore the Supreme Court?  Let’s hope not.  And let’s hope he doesn’t remember what Andrew Jackson did.

Any ideas from you about this?