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Dear Friends:
In drafting this Statement, Kent Greenfield engaged in on-going discussions with the ten collaborators listed below. (I was one of them).
The Statement has now gone public – and by that point, more than 950 legal academics have signed on.
Perhaps some of you might want to join us? If so, go to: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxl2ZNqUk2_DFy8smVOmAI6CcHCIh5Ib2gFiz3YGiQ3l2RBg/viewform
“We Are in a Constitutional Crisis” Statement of Law Professors and Law Teachers February 26, 2025
The undersigned are professors and teachers of law, dedicated to the rule of law. We believe we are in a constitutional crisis.
The President has signed a number of executive orders that are beyond his constitutional or statutory authority. The President cannot change who is a citizen. He does not have unbridled legal authority to stop funds already allocated by Congress, nor can he unilaterally impose new, politically-motivated conditions on government benefits that violate the constitutional rights of the recipient individuals, companies, and institutions. He is not empowered to disband agencies and departments duly created, empowered, and funded by Congress. He is not allowed to give oversight and control over government operations to private individuals unconstrained by law.
The government and laws of the United States are not subject to presidential whim. On the contrary, the President is bound to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” And he is bound by oath to “faithfully execute” the office of the president and “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
The undersigned have a variety of views on the underlying policies at issue. But we are united in our view that the President has acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally.
The illegality of these actions, even when the illegality has been adjudged in federal courts, does not seem to be deterring the President’s actions. Instead, the President and his administration are openly flirting with disobeying judicial rulings against him. In fact, the President has proclaimed, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
We are saddened by the fact that we have to explain to the President this fundamental democratic principle, but we do: a president has the obligation to obey the Constitution as well as court orders enjoining his illegal and unconstitutional efforts. The law is not whatever Mr. Trump says it is. He is not king.
In the words of President John F. Kennedy, “Americans are free … to disagree with the law but not to disobey it. For in a government of laws and not of men, no man, however prominent or powerful, … is entitled to defy a court of law.”
We stand in support of democracy and the rule of law. We stand as allies to those individuals and institutions targeted by illegal and unconstitutional coercion. Our democracy can survive, but not without law.
Initial Signatories Kent Greenfield, Boston College (principal author) Floyd Abrams, Yale University Bruce Ackerman, Yale University Maryam Ahranjani, University of New Mexico Lee C. Bollinger, Columbia University Erwin Chemerinsky, University of California Alan Chen, University of Denver Andrew Manuel Crespo, Harvard University William Marshall, University of North Carolina Aziz Rana, Boston College Eric Segall, Georgia State University Bijal Shah, Boston College Peter Shane, The Ohio State University; New York University Geoffrey Stone, University of Chicago Julie Suk, Fordham University
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