The key to checking Trump's lawlessness

State boards should go after the attorneys who are enabling the administration's disregard for the rule of law

- DAVID SCHULTZ GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

RESIDENT TRUMP is testing the limits of law. Federal judges issue orders restraining him — on deportations, the use of military force or retaliatory lawsuits against political enemies such as James Comey and the press such as the New York Times — and he simply defies them.

Lower courts continue to push back, but the pattern of disregard persists.

The focus of much of the discussion is on how to get Trump to stop this illegal behavior or alternatively, what to do if Trump disobeys the courts. For many this represents a constitutional crisis with many worried that judges, as the final bulwark of democracy and checks and balances, will run out of tools to limit presidential power. Moreover, while lower federal courts seem willing to stand up to the president, the Supreme Court, with three of his appointees, seems unwilling to resist.

The public debate has largely focused on Trump himself. But framing the problem this way overlooks a more practical and immediate lever of accountability.

The true weak point is not Trump directly, but the lawyers who enable him. Attorneys, including his attorney general, Pam Bondi, provide the professional expertise, legal arguments and courtroom presence that give his defiance the appearance of legitimacy. Without their involvement, presidential lawlessness would remain largely rhetorical or political. With their active participation, it becomes legalized defiance of court authority, cloaked in the very procedures designed to preserve the rule of law.

This matters because presidential pardons do not reach state disciplinary proceedings.