What can a court do if Trump or Musk refuse to follow a court order? This isn’t hypothetical, there has already been one case where the plaintiff has now filed a request for civil contempt charges against the administration for not complying with the judge’s restraining order in that case. But just because he’s the president doesn’t mean he gets to ignore the law.

So How Can a Court Enforce an Order Against an Administration that Refuses to Comply?

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First, the enforcement arm for the Federal courts is the U.S. Marshal service (i.e. the Federal marshals – yes, they don’t just fly the friendly skies, they enforce on the ground). The U.S. Marshals serve warrants and subpeonas, and make arrests, on behalf of the Federal courts. In addition, as written right into our Federal law, “(a) It is the primary role and mission of the United States Marshals Service to provide for the security and to obey, execute, and enforce all orders of the United States District Courts, the United States Courts of Appeals, the Court of International Trade, and the United States Tax Court, as provided by law.”

That’s all well and good, BUT… the U.S. Marshals are overseen by the Department of Justice, which is part of the executive branch. This means that in theory Trump could order the DOJ to order the U.S. Marshals to not execute the lawful order of the court.

HOWEVER…

There are two things about this: First, as I’ve said elsewhere, that almost has to happen in order for the House to start taking seriously their duty to impeach (once impeached the Senate would have to convict in order to remove Trump from the office of the President – we’ve seen how this went last time, but that was then… this is now).

But second, there is a workaround specifically for when a court is being thwarted by the DOJ. The court can escalate the charge to criminal contempt (the crime being committed is refusing to follow the court order). At that point the court has to apply to the Attorney General (also in the executive branch) to have an administration attorney assigned to prosecute. HOWEVER, the law very clearly states: “The court must request that the contempt be prosecuted by an attorney for the government, unless the interest of justice requires the appointment of another attorney. If the government declines the request, the court must appoint another attorney to prosecute the contempt.”

By the way, did you catch that “must”? Must appoint another attorney. Not may. Must.

So, the answer to “What can the court do if they simply refuse?” is, they’ve got ways. Our system of government has zero loopholes for someone to actually be king, no matter what they say.

Also, for those of you asking “what about the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity?”, what the ruling said was that the President has broad immunity for official acts within the scope of being the president. Disobeying the law is not a presidential act, in fact it’s the opposite, as the president is sworn to uphold the law. 

Moreover, while it has never been tested, it is generally understood that the one person that the President cannot pardon is himself.