Group of Democrat state AGs tell JD Vance: ‘No one is above the law’

A group of 17 Democratic state AGs has a strong message for Vice President JD Vance: “Judges do not ‘control’ executive power. Judges stop the unlawful and unconstitutional exercise of power.”

That was the message co-signed by the group, which of course doesn’t include Virginia’s state attorney general, Jason Miyares, a MAGA Republican running for re-election this year, who has been predictably mum on the excesses of the first three weeks of Trump 2.0.

Vance, a former elitist Never Trumper and Yale Law grad, is doing the likes of Miyares one better.

In a tweet earlier in the week, Vance suggested that the Trump/Musk administration is at least considering ignoring judicial orders that push back against the administration’s efforts to illegally withhold congressionally-approved spending and unilaterally decimate the federal workforce.

---

ICYMI

• Beyer highlights USAID chaos in Congo: ‘Astounding display of incompetence and apathy’
• Coalition of state AGs files federal suit challenging Elon Musk, DOGE
• Republicans seek to find $2 trillion in cuts; Medicaid and SNAP on the chopping block

---

“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance wrote in the Feb. 9 tweet.

The group of Democratic AGs, in a joint statement, pointed to the Supreme Court precedent dating back to 1803 in Marbury v. Madison that Vance would have first come across in Politics 101 as a freshman undergrad in which Chief Justice John Marshall observed that “ours is ‘a government of laws, and not of men,’ and that ‘it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.’”

“For those who value the original intent of the founders and our legal traditions, nothing is more firmly rooted in our legal history, tradition, and the original intent of the founders than the power of judges to stop the executive from breaking the law,” the AGs wrote. “Americans understand the principle of checks and balances. The judiciary is a check on unlawful action by the executive and legislative branches of government. Generals, prosecutors, and all public officials are subject to checks and balances. No one is above the law.”

More from the AGs’ statement:

“As Attorneys General, we will carefully scrutinize each and every action taken by this administration. If the Constitution or federal law is violated, we will not hesitate to act.

“That is why we have already filed motions in courts across this country to seek temporary restraining orders and injunctions blocking the unlawful and unconstitutional executive orders and actions, including those to ban birthright citizenship; indiscriminately freeze federal funding; cap vital medical research dollars; and grant unauthorized disclosure of Americans’ private records and data.

“Judges granted our motions and issued restraining orders to protect the American people, democracy, and the rule of law. That is and has always been their job.  That job is the very core of our legal system. And in this critical moment, we will stand our ground to defend it.”