MICHAEL WALSH: ‘The First Thing We Do.‘

The Founders didn’t invent a “nation of laws, not men.” They created a contentious, profoundly human Republic of legislatures, representatives, senators, governors, judges, and presidents who were expected to thrash out their differences in the arena of ideas and power, not by consulting a law library but through sheer will power and force of argument. Guns, too, when it came to that. It can and does get ugly, but that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Thus far, the Trump team has played it smart, avoiding provocation, fighting lawfare with lawfare and not overtly refusing a court order while at the same time punting it for all the right reasons of state. The president has every bit as much right to “interpret” the Constitution as John Roberts does, or the lowliest federal judge in Honolulu, and every bit as much right to ignore them, as both Jefferson and Jackson and even Biden did. But when the time comes, as it will, Trump will simply have to quote Andrew Jackson, who is supposed to have said to Chief Justice Marshall (the author of Marbury): “John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.”

For the long-term health of the country, when the time comes Donald Trump should do the same. In so doing, he is serving the American people, fulfilling his campaign promises and, perhaps most important, protecting the office of the President for all who come after him. That’s “who we are.”

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