Law Schools Slam Vance’s Challenge to Judicial Branch Powers

A group representing law schools railed against statements by “elected officials and administration representatives” that call into question the courts’ authority to review executive actions.

“There can be no disagreement that in a nation under law, that all government officials, without exception, must comply with direct judicial orders,” the Association of American Law Schools, comprised of 175 US law school members, said Tuesday. “To do otherwise is to shatter our historic system of separation of powers and remove the checks and balances the framers so wisely wrote in our Constitution.”

Vice President J.D. Vance, a Yale Law School graduate, wrote in a post on X on Feb. 9: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” A federal judge ruled the following day that the Trump administration violated a temporary restraining order blocked it from freezing $3 trillion in federal funds.

Neither the AALS nor the White House immediately replied to a request for comment on specific targets of the AALS statement.

ABA Under Fire

The AALS isn’t the only legal organization weighing in on the Trump administration’s shake up of the federal government, which consists of slashing budgets, mass firings, and a slew of executive orders. The American Bar Association also expressed concern over the rule of law after the vice president’s X post, which garnered more than 62 million views.

“It’s a fundamental cornerstone of our democracy that the courts are the protectors of the citizenry from government overreach,” the group said in a Feb. 10 statement. Neither group referred specifically to the social media post in their statements.

The ABA was criticized by several right-leaning groups earlier this month for “violating federal law by targeting applicants for the program based on race, age, and sexual orientation,” the groups said in an EEOC charge of discrimination.

The Federal Trade Commission’s new chairman Andrew Ferguson is banning FTC political appointees from holding leadership roles in the ABA, participating in or attending ABA events, or renewing their ABA memberships, per a new policy Ferguson announced last week.

The law school organization, which was founded in 1900, advocates for legal education and learning standards within law schools. Penn State Law School’s dean Danielle Conway was tapped in January as the nonprofit group’s president-elect. AALS leadership also includes representatives from New York Law School, University of Maryland, University of Virginia, and Arizona State University, among other law schools, according to its website.

“Defiance of court orders by our government is incompatible with our constitutional democracy,” the group said. “Congress and the courts must take all appropriate actions to uphold the rule of law and protect the authority of the judicial branch and the Constitution.”