The United States currently has an elected president and an unelected billionaire who are flagrantly breaking its laws. As members of Congress wrongly insist they have no leverage to do anything about this, we who care about democracy are pleading for others to help. Is it consistent with democracy to direct these pleas to the federal judiciary—a branch of government staffed by unelected judges?

Yes, of course. With reservations.

Argues that while courts are powerful, there are significant downsides to leaning on them in this instance:

A third downside to relying on the judicial menu is that federal courts helped get us into this mess—and they can make things much worse by ratifying the lawbreaking. Few federal judges believe it is actually their democratic responsibility to enforce the laws passed by Congress; most of them believe they can disregard any law whose constitutionality they disagree with.

#USPol #USCourts #Congress