Professor Jed Shugerman was featured in a Slate article written by Dahlia Lithwick that discusses whether or not recent clashes between Congressional Democrats and President Trump over the Meuller report should be considered a constitutional crisis.
“This current episode is not a constitutional crisis because the Constitution is still functioning as designed, in terms of separation of powers. The key question to me is whether either party bypasses the courts or defies the courts. The House subpoenas documents, the executive branch makes legal arguments against those subpoenas, and the courts will hear this dispute. These are checks and balances by design. A constitutional crisis would be the House trying to arrest [Treasury Secretary Steve] Mnuchin or Barr without a court order—the hypocritical ‘lock him up.’ And a constitutional crisis would be Trump or his administration ignoring a court order to turn over documents.” Right now, Trump and his administration are just ignoring a congressional order, not a court order.
