President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have indicated that they will simply refuse to comply with court orders with which they don’t agree. I’m getting a lot of questions asking “Doesn’t the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity allow Donald Trump to refuse to follow court orders?” In a word, no. Here’s why.

First, in the history of our country this has never been tested, because that enhanced presidential immunity from the Supreme Court isn’t even a year old. So while I am a lawyer, law professor and dean emeritus, and I author and construe legislation, nobody, including me, can do anything but offer an educated opinion about this. So here is my educated opinion:

Here’s the thing: In that enhanced immunity opinion, the Supreme Court said, and I quote, “At a minimum, the President must be immune from prosecution for an official act unless the Government can show that applying a criminal prohibition to that act would pose no dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.”

You don’t need to worry about the second half of that sentence. Focus on the first part: “for an official act”.

Now, over to the courts. When a court orders a defendant to do something, regardless of whether it is a civil or a criminal case, that order is law unless and until it is overturned. And even if it is overturned, it is law until it is overturned.

Now over to the presidency. The President of the United states is sworn to uphold the law, and the Constitution.

The very act of not upholding the law cannot be an official act, in fact it is the very antithesis of an official act of the Presidency. Violating the law can never be considered an official act of the president.
So, refusing to obey a court order, defying a court order, is not only not upholding the law, but is breaking the law. Presidents are not allowed to break the law.

The consequence for a president who breaks the law is impeachment. During his previous administration Trump was impeached, but he wasn’t convicted. The Constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate to convict, and the penalty for an impeached president upon conviction is removal from office.

And THIS is why it’s so important to continue to call your representatives, including those from the other party. See my Facebook post for how to call your representatives and what to say. (You do not need to have a Facebook account to see it, it’s a public post.) And call every day!