New York County Lawyers Association Officers Defend Authority of the Courts and the Rule of Law in Response to VP Vance’s X Post

Earlier this week, Vice President J. D. Vance posted a three-line Tweet on X. It read: “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.”

Let’s put aside the fact that important matters of constitutional law are now being debated on a forum that limits posts to 280 characters. That itself is cause for concern. But we have a more fundamental concern that needs to be aired—not in a “Twitter war” but in a serious and thoughtful way.

More than 200 years ago, in Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), the Supreme Court declared that it is the judicial branch that declares what the Constitution means and what the law is. Since then, the executive and legislative branches have understood their duty to honor and respect the authority of the courts.

The Vice President did not state that the executive branch would not comply with the court’s order. And perhaps through his use of the word “legitimate,” the Vice President meant only to restate what courts have recognized: that there are areas of law, like battlefield command and prosecutorial discretion, that are not usually subject to judicial review. But this Tweet was not written in a vacuum. Instead, it was written in the midst of a debate about the authority of Elon Musk’s DOGE project to access Treasury Department records—and during a time when the President is pushing many initiatives raising questions of constitutional dimension. A reasonable reader might interpret the Tweet to mean that the administration intends to disregard court decisions with which it disagrees.

We at NYCLA wish to make clear that the rule of law must prevail. While elected officials are free to criticize court decisions and to seek redress within the judicial system, they cannot defy court orders that remain in effect. The alternative is lawlessness and the undermining of our entire system of government.

About the New York County Lawyers Association

The New York County Lawyers Association (www.nycla.org) was founded in 1908 as one of the first major bar associations in the country that admitted members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion or gender, and has a long history of supporting the rights of LGBTQ+ people. Since its inception, NYCLA has pioneered some of the most far-reaching and tangible reforms in American jurisprudence. For more information on NYCLA please visit nycla.org.

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