"This is indubitably true. The Constitution, our civil laws, regulations, mores, customs, practices, courtesies - all of it; the President simply ignores it all when he takes it into his head to act. A broad swath of our people find this refreshing in what they may feel is an over regulated society. After all, lawyers seem to have a penchant for telling you what you can't do. President Trump simply ignores them.50"
"This is not to suggest that he is entirely lawless. He is not. As an experienced litigator he has learned that -- at least on the civil side of our courts -- neither our Constitution nor laws enforce themselves, and he can do most anything until an aggrieved person or entity will stand up and say him "Nay," i.e. take him to court."
A 161-page federal opinion finds that retaliation by the President against immigrants who speak for Palestinian rights violates the First Amendment. The opinion is framed as an answer to an anonymous postcard and addresses pardons, displays of force, and institutional responses. The opinion catalogs harms, examines possible remedies beginning near page 148, and details a pattern of presidential disregard for constitutional norms, laws, mores, customs, and courtesies. The opinion notes that many institutions of free speech have accommodated or caved, and that the President exploits civil enforcement gaps until aggrieved parties sue.
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