Trump’s Legal Strategy Has a Name

Court-baiting is a potent strategy because it puts judges in a lose-lose position: Either strike down a popular policy and face public backlash, or allow the policy and erode legal limits on executive power. Faced with a highly popular but questionably legal policy, Turkey’s Constitutional Court chose to go against public opinion. Of the 233 lawsuits filed against the Trump administration so far, almost one in four—53 legal challenges in total—concern immigration and citizenship. Other members of Trump’s administration have similarly invoked security concerns to justify defying court orders on immigration. Ultimately, however, constitutionalism means that society must accept an unpopular policy that respects constitutional limits over a popular policy that violates them.