After loss in appeals court, questions mount over how far rhetorical fight will go

Three weeks after taking office, President Donald Trump is embroiled in a feud with the nation’s judges that has legal experts and Democrats warning of a possible constitutional showdown.

The president’s repeated personal attacks on judges reviewing his controversial travel ban — including a call to “blame the court system” if a terror attack happens soon — have alarmed critics who detect an authoritarian streak in the former reality television star.

An administration that delights in shattering political norms may push its rebel ways too far, they fear, threatening the separation of powers that is the foundation of the American system and inciting the worst political crisis since Watergate.

“We’re dealing with a president who has no respect for the basic institutions of our society, including an independent judiciary and the Fourth Estate,” said Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School. “This is just the tip of a very scary iceberg that the ship of state is heading toward.”

Over the past week, Mr Trump has denigrated the district court judge in Seattle who blocked his 120-day global ban on refugee admissions and 90-day halt to arrivals from seven majority-Muslim nations and questioned the competence of an appeals court. The president referred to a “so-called judge” and said even a “bad high school student would understand” that he has the authority to limit entry to the US.

Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s US Supreme Court nominee, reportedly said the president’s attacks were ‘demoralising’ © Getty Neil Gorsuch, Trump’s US Supreme Court nominee, reportedly said the president’s attacks were ‘demoralising’ © Getty

Even before a federal appeals court refused on Thursday night to reinstate the travel ban, the White House was on the defensive over reports that Judge Neil Gorsuch, Mr Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, had told senators the president’s jibes about the judiciary were “disheartening” and “demoralising”.

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, insisted that Mr Gorsuch was speaking generally about attacks on judicial independence rather than responding to the president.

But the White House counterattack was undermined by Republican senator Ben Sasse, who said Mr Gorsuch had been talking about Mr Trump. “I asked him about the ‘so-called judges’ comment,” Mr Sasse said. “He said any attack on any — I think his term to me was brothers and sisters of the robe — is an attack on all judges.”

Alberto Gonzales, attorney-general under President George W Bush, agreed that Mr Trump’s remarks were ill-considered. “It’s not something I would ever do. I can’t imagine President Bush ever saying anything like that.”

With the president accusing the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit judges of being motivated by politics, some worry that Mr Trump might ultimately defy an unfavourable Supreme Court ruling.

Already, immigration officers at Washington Dulles International Airport ignored a court order in the travel ban’s initial hours and refused to allow detained travellers access to attorneys.

On Thursday night, a defiant Mr Trump responded to his appeals court loss by tweeting: “SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!”

Senator Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat who first disclosed Mr Gorsuch’s comments, said the US “is careening, literally, toward a constitutional crisis”.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Irvine, law school, said via email: “President Trump’s attack on the federal judiciary is unprecedented for a president. To be sure, presidents have at times criticised decisions, but never in such harsh terms as President Trump has done. The judiciary is crucial to check presidential — and all governmental abuses. It is clear that he does not want checks from anyone.”