Independent U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine says the U.S. is facing a constitutional crisis on the Senate floor on Feb. 20, 2025. (C-SPAN)
While other members of Maine’s congressional delegation have suggested the courts will provide a backstop to possible illegal actions taken by President Donald Trump, independent U.S. Sen. Angus King said leaving matters to the courts is an abdication of congressional responsibility.
“The President and the Vice President are already hinting that they’re not going to obey the decisions of the courts,” King said in a Senate floor speech on Thursday, during debate about the Senate budget resolution. “Many of my friends in this body say, ‘Well you know, it would be hard, we don’t want to buck the president and everything. We’re going to let the courts take care of this.’
“Number one, that’s a cop out.”
While King is not alone among Maine’s members of Congress when it comes to criticizing the president for what they view as illegal actions, other members have suggested the courts are the tool that should be used to stop any such overreach.
Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has said she is “concerned” about Trump and billionaire Elon Musk seizing Congress’ constitutional power of the purse and called the Office of Management and Budget’s move to freeze the federal loans and grants as “far too sweeping.”
However, Collins has suggested pushing back on such actions is not up to her but up to the courts.
“I think it’s pretty clear that this violates Article One of the Constitution,” Collins said in a recent interview with Politico about the White House trying to block spending already approved by Congress. “A lot of these issues are going to end up in court.”
On the other side of the aisle, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said during a press conference earlier this month that as a member of the minority party in Congress, the active lawsuits and others coming down are the “most important avenue” to stop Trump’s actions.
Pingree, a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, said she is baffled by what she sees as unconstitutional actions from the White House, especially because Republicans also control both chambers of Congress, which theoretically would support Trump’s agenda. She added that Trump’s actions seeking to take away the power of spending from Congress are not only unconstitutional but don’t make strong legal arguments.
“It’s as if they are more intent on causing chaos than actually winning in court,” she added.
Democratic Rep. Jared Golden has also said the courts are the appropriate avenue to resolve the questions Trump’s actions have raised about the separation of powers and that the president pushing the bounds of his authority is not without precedent.
“This is a sign the system is working, with the judicial branch mediating legal disputes and making sure that the other branches stay within constitutional guardrails,” Golden wrote on his Substack on Wednesday.
Pointing to the story of the boy who cried wolf, Golden wrote that stopping a potential constitutional crisis will require a majority of Americans to act.
“Will a majority take us seriously if we have been calling the president a ‘dictator’ while courts and the Congress retain authority to constrain him?” Golden wrote. “What happens to our credibility if at every turn we accuse the president of breaking the law, including in cases where reasonable jurists disagree? After all that, will a majority of Americans be listening if the president triggers a true constitutional crisis?”
Whether directly alluding to Golden or not, King said on the floor Thursday, “There’s some criticism now in the press saying the people are talking about a constitutional crisis. They’re crying wolf. No, this is a constitutional crisis. It’s the most serious assault on our Constitution in the history of this country.”
Pointing to Trump quoting Napoleon Bonaparte, who declared himself French emperor in the early 1800s, in stating that he isn’t violating any law if he “saves” the country, King said the nation is on the path toward collapsing the separation of powers at the core of the United States’ constitutional republic.
“They didn’t intend to have an efficient dictatorship,” King said of the framers of the Constitution, “and that’s what we’re headed for.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.