Elon Musk’s campaign against the federal judge is dangerous

In ordinary times, this type of vituperation without foundation and the conspiracy conspiracy could shrink from shoulders such as the contamination of worldly information. But Musk is the second most powerful person in the country. His attack against Engelmayer lit a storm of fire online and led the representative Eli Crane, an unconditional republican of Maga from Arizona, accuser The judge to act on political motifs and announce that he would present articles of political trial against Engelmayer.

“Party judges who abuse their positions is a threat to democracy,” said Crane.

That is late. In fact, partisan magician forces seeking to undermine democracy are playing the projection game while eroding the separation of powers in the center of the US government.

The Episode of Engelmayer does not develop in a vacuum. At least 10 judges They have issued decisions that slow or stop the Trump administration campaign to displace career public officials with political lackeys, interrupt mandatory programs and, in general, sow chaos in Washington and beyond.

At the moment, the Federal Judicial Power constitutes the only potential obstacle for the uproar of the triumph of musk. It is not clear how or if the judges will remain firm. However, it is almost certain that the viability of the “controls and balances” system will be tested crucial in the courts, which culminate in one or more clashes related to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Vice President JD Vance has indicated the intention of the administration to challenge the judicial authority. Responding to the order of Engelmayer, Vance said in X, “Judges cannot control the legitimate power of the Executive.”

In reality, the fundamental decision of the Supreme Court on the judicial review, in the case of 1803 of Marbury v. MadisonIt established that it is the unique role of the Judiciary to determine whether the executive and legislative branches have exercised their power within the constitutional limits.

Vance, for example, has advocated the challenge of the Judiciary for years. In 2021, he saying That in a second term, Trump should fire “all officials in the administrative state” and, “when the courts stop him, they stop before the country as Andrew Jackson did and says:” The president of the Supreme Court has said his failed. Now to enforce it ‘”(although Jackson’s appointment is likely apocryphalThe seventh president of the Nation refused to enforce a ruling of the Supreme Court).

So what really happened to Judge Engelmayer? (Complete dissemination: We were colleagues of university class and fellow publishers of the newspaper Harvard Crimson).

LEGAL ENGELMAYER’S career It has been stellar. It includes periods as secretary of the Supreme Court of the late judge Thurgood Marshall, as a federal prosecutor in New York, and as assistant to the United States Attorney General. Former President Barack Obama appointed Engelmayer, now 63, for the bank in 2011.

Earlier this month, a lawsuit filed by Massachusetts general prosecutors, New York, and 17 other states landed on the Engelmayer desk. Without reaching the final merits of the case, governed Preliminary that states had shown that the highly unusual Dux intrusion in the Treasury Department’s payment system created a risk of “irreparable damage”, namely, “the dissemination of sensitive and confidential information and the high risk that systems In question they will be more vulnerable than before hacking. ”

Engelmayer said it was likely that states could prove that the lawful agents had violated the Federal Administrative Procedure Law “in multiple aspects”, as well as the doctrine of the separation of powers. In a hearing scheduled for Friday, the Trump administration will have the opportunity to convince another federal judge that the order of Engelmayer tentatively stopping the Doge team was incorrect.

To this caution and well reasoned intervention, musk responded In X: “A corrupt judge who protects corruption. You need to be accused now!

Also in X, Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, saying“This has the feeling of a blow.” Falsely affirming that Engelmayer had not cited any legal basis for his action, Senator Tom Cotton, a republican from Arkansas, called The judge is an “outlaw” who must be taken to the prohibition of hearing cases about the Trump administration.

Only six weeks earlier, another jurist had something to say about this kind of contempt. In his New Year’s Eve reportJohn Roberts, president of the Supreme Court, wrote: “In recent years … elected officials of the entire political spectrum have increased the spectrum of contempt opened by the decisions of the Federal Court.” Roberts added: “These dangerous suggestions, by sporadic, for sporadic, must be rejected.”

Lately, dangerous suggestions have become more common. Soon, Roberts will probably have the opportunity to say more about them.

Paul M. Barrett is the deputy director of the Business and Human Rights Center of the Stern School of Business of the University of New York.