JD Vance, the US vice-president, has been accused of threatening the US constitution after telling judges who have issued rulings temporarily blocking some of Donald Trump’s most contentious executive orders that they “aren’t allowed” to control the president’s “legitimate power”.
Vance’s intervention came after Judge Paul Engelmayer, a US district court judge, issued an injunction stopping Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) unit from accessing the treasury department’s central payment system in search of supposed corruption and waste.
Engelmayer’s ruling is one of nine court orders issued against the administration in response to about 40 separate cases filed as the federal courts have emerged as the main bulwark against Trump’s headlong rush to remake the US government federal bureaucracy and assert his vision of an imperial presidency.
Outrage after JD Vance claims judges are not allowed to check executive power Vice-president accused of threatening constitution after saying judges have no right to restrain president’s agenda.
In fact, article III of the US constitution confers a power known as judicial review, which gives federal judges the authority to rule on cases involving the president, as well as other branches of government.
