Now that multiple court orders are blocking executive actions by the new administration, the Vice President has openly suggested that the executive branch may simply ignore them. That statement risks a constitutional crisis because it challenges a bedrock principle of separation of powers: the holding of 1803's Marbury v. Madison that "it is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is."
For over two centuries, Marbury and the concept of judicial review have ensured that no politicians or agency administrators—no matter how powerful—can place themselves above the law. While compliance with court orders has at times been grudging, the President and Congress have consistently respected Marbury in the end because it is part of the glue that holds the Constitution together.
