Donald Trump’s executive orders make one thing clear to me: He is trying to grab power the Constitution does not give him.
One order declares that as of Feb. 19, 2025, some babies born in the United States will not be American citizens under circumstances Trump himself has determined. The law on citizenship is not determined by any president, but by the Constitution and laws passed by Congress. When this order was challenged in court, a judge called it “blatantly unconstitutional.”
This was an easy call because Trump’s order attempts to change the law without going to Congress. It also tries to change the Constitution. The Constitution does not give the president the authority to make law; that is given to Congress alone. And the Founders made it difficult to change the Constitution. Congress must pass a bill, and three-quarters of the states must ratify it. Changing the Constitution requires a large consensus of Americans.
Any president who simply declares he can change the law violates the separation of powers that is fundamental to the Constitution. As James Madison wrote in Federalist 47: “the legislative, executive and judicial departments ought to be separate and distinct.” The Founders separated the government’s powers to prevent tyranny. Trump’s orders that are trying to change the law by himself alone violate that bedrock principle.
Andrew Kennedy
Monroeville