With the Senate having confirmed many loyalists to Trump’s cabinet, the nation needs the judicial branch to help check this president. A number of federal district and appellate courts have stepped up. But we will need the Supreme Court to put some real restraints on this man our Founders feared.

I applaud the Court’s recent decision to let be a temporary restraining order on the administration’s unlawful attempt to remove the head of the Office of Special Counsel.

The Court’s ruling this past July in Trump v. United States, which greatly expanded presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, was surely read by Trump as a green light to do whatever he pleases. One could cite many actions by him which seem heedless of the public interest. I note here the appointment of Pam Bondi and Kash Patel as attorney general and FBI director, respectively.

Having regretted picks for both posts in his first term, this time Trump chose true believers. In Senate hearings, neither Bondi nor Patel could give a straightforward answer to these questions: Who won the 2020 election? And, would you resign rather than follow an illegal order? The acrobatics of both were silly.

Since Trump v. United States, is there such a thing as an illegal presidential order? The president now enjoys “absolute immunity” in “exercising his core constitutional powers,” including “official discussions between the President and his Attorney General” (and presumably his FBI director). Or, can there be an illegal presidential order, but the issuer does not have to answer for it? Can an attorney general be prosecuted for complying with an order the president cannot be?

I wonder how many senators would have voted in February 2021 to convict Trump of inciting insurrection, had they known a criminal prosecution for the same conduct might be ruled out. In Trump v. United States, the Court downplayed the Trump factor:

“When may a former President be prosecuted for official acts taken during his Presidency? … (In) addressing that question today, unlike the political branches and the public at large, we cannot afford to fixate exclusively, or even primarily, on present exigencies. In a case like this one, focusing on ‘transient results’ may have profound consequences for the separation of powers and for the future of our Republic.”

But the Constitution must anticipate presidents like the one alluded to in “present exigencies”: a man whose chief concern is self-aggrandizement, not any public interest; one heedless of truth and any harm he causes others; one who stokes division; one who insists on allegiance to himself and not the Constitution; one who, with vast financial resources, is willing to “primary” disloyal members of his party; one who will go to great lengths to avoid a peaceful transfer of power, even inciting a violent assault on Congress.

The Constitution must anticipate a president free of any internal checks. Can a “unitary executive” model best keep the Republic, or do we need extensive checks and balances between the three branches of government?

The majority opinion contains a dozen approving references to a bold president, or the fear of one chilled by the possibility of criminal prosecution, and a single reference to any countervailing interest, specifically, “fair and effective law enforcement.” Whatever balance between those interests the Court intended was lost on Donald Trump.

As many high school students know, and as the two dissents note, the Founders were equally concerned to protect against a usurper as president.

On July 1, when the decision was announced, the return to the White House by a vengeful Donald Trump was as likely as not. We can bet he has no intention of seeing to a peaceful transfer of power in four years, should the Republican candidate lose.

As I first read the dissents, I recalled Alan Barth’s book, “Prophets with Honor,” which I read in high-school in 1975. In my opinion, both Justice Sotomayor’s and Justice Jackson’s dissents rank with those in Barth’s book. (Excerpts from the dissents can be found at: deadpatriots.blog.)

This is our hour of peril.

Todd Buchanan lives in Eldora.