Vice President JD Vance took to X on Sunday and suggested that President Donald Trump has “legitimate power” to ignore judges when carrying out executive orders, claiming courts “aren’t allowed” to overrule the new POTUS.

“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal,” Vance wrote in an X post. “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.”

An employee of the National Labor Relations Board who was fired by President Donald Trump is firing back in court with a federal lawsuit, calling her removal “unprecedented and illegal.”

Gwynne A. Wilcox called her Jan. 27 firing by late-night email a blatant violation of the National Labor Relations Act, which allows the president to remove board members only in cases of “neglect of duty or malfeasance in office, but for no other cause,” and only after “notice and hearing,” according to the complaint.

“The President’s unprecedented removal of Ms. Wilcox defies 90 years of Supreme Court precedent that has ensured the independence of critical government agencies,” Deepak Gupta, an attorney for Wilcox, said in a statement. “Federal law is clear: The members of the National Labor Relations Board may only be removed for neglect of duty or misconduct, and only after a notice and a hearing. The President has violated the law.”

Educators and students preparing to begin a new semester can make good use of lessons about leadership and purposeful service that can be gleaned from the beautiful life of former President James Earl “Jimmy” Carter. That is especially so for law school communities for at least two reasons.

First, although lawyers are a tiny fraction of the population (0.4% nationally according to the ABA, four for every 1,000 people), they have always achieved a disproportionately large presence in public and private sector leadership roles. Accordingly, U.S. law schools are focusing on how best to prepare students for leadership roles. Carter’s life is a rich case study of the virtues of civility, collaboration and cooperation that the ABA has identified as hallmarks of professionalism.

Second, with the privileges of our honorable profession come public responsibilities. We can use our knowledge and skills to do well, but we a requirement of our law licenses is to strive to do good, as well, through pro bono work and other selfless service. Carter’s relentless determination to make the world better for others is a shining beacon for aspiring lawyers to follow.

Amid a constant barrage of disturbing news, even the gloomiest short days and long dark nights of this new year are brightened by remembering Carter.

Understandably and appropriately, people everywhere are discussing the lessons of Carter’s life. He deserves recognition for being a good and decent man committed to unwavering public service to his country and people all over the world. Perhaps he will be remembered most and longest for what he taught us about how to work and live.

In retrospect, the restless striving that helped clear his improbable untrod path—from the farmland of a small town in Georgia to commanding a nuclear submarine, from the statehouse in Georgia as a contrarian anti-segregation governor to the White House, followed by four decades as the most stubbornly impactful humanitarian on the planet—was driven by hard work, perseverance in the face of setbacks, strength of character, and virtue grounded in the universal code of conduct that he drew from his faith. These are qualities that serve any law student and lawyer well.

Historians, in my opinion, are likely to agree with former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who chaffed when people described her husband as the greatest former president. She often would correct them by pointing out that he was an excellent president, as well. Actually, we got two terms of work out of Carter during his single term.

A few days after he was sworn in, Carter moved to heal old wounds. He granted complete amnesty to Vietnam draft evaders, and his daughter Amy began fourth grade in a historic Black public elementary school a few blocks from the White House. He successfully pursued the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt (which stand to this day), the Panama Canal treaties and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II.

Working with Congress, he established the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, sought and signed legislation limiting strip mining, and created the vast Arctic Refuge while doubling the land dedicated to national parks and wildlife preserves. Carter wrestled with “stagflation;” energy crises; the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor disaster; the Nicaraguan revolution; the end of détente and the renewed Cold War over the Soviets invasion of Afghanistan, which precipitated embargoes and the boycott of the 1980 summer Olympics in Moscow; and, of course, the Iranian hostage crises and disastrous failed rescue attempt.

On Jan. 20, 1977, during Carter’s inauguration, my wife, Marla, and I somehow wormed our way into the front row of the enormous crowd lining the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route. Unabated patriotism and pride from the recent bicentennial observances bolstered the collective sense of relief and expectation for Carter’s presidency in those post-Watergate days, when the country also was still pained by the fractures of the Cold War, the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War.

Suddenly, the new president’s long black bullet-proof limousine stopped right in front of us. Carter and his beloved, Rosalynn, got out and a started walking hand in hand toward the White House. He flashed his signature toothy grin and waved, and the crowd roared its delighted approval. Every single person among the thousands there felt as if Carter was waving and smiling at each of them. Now, an inaugural stroll has become an obligatory (and carefully orchestrated) ritual, like routinely recognizing special guests in the balcony seats at the State of the Union speech. In 1977, it was a spontaneous joyful brave gesture.

Carter was then, and always, an American original, an uncommon man with an innate genuine common touch. A teacher.

After Carter lost the 1980 presidential election in a landslide to former President Ronald Reagan, the Carters devoted themselves energetically to a life of service to others, including work in communities building housing for less-advantaged Americans; humanitarian and social good works at home and abroad, such as monitoring elections; and advocating for environmental protection, peace and world health causes. He even is credited with eradicating a 3-foot-long Guinea worm parasite that each year preyed on millions of people in Africa and Asia.

The Carters remained true to their humble mission, even as accolades like the Nobel Peace Prize piled up, along with unusual honors, such as having a naval ship and a fish species named after Carter. Throughout it all, he taught Sunday school deep into his 90s. Practicing what he preached, he leveraged his fame not for profit but to advocate human rights and love for his neighbors in hot spots all over the world courageously and often controversially.

On Aug. 25, 2009, news of the death of my former boss, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, reached us on our mobile phones just before the flight attendants secured the door for a long flight home from a trip to Israel. We had been talking about Kennedy’s failing health the previous evening at dinner in the lovely gardens of the American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem.

At that dinner, Carter and Rosalynn were, to our surprise, enjoying a quiet meal a few tables away. We asked the headwaiter to deliver a note thanking them for their continuing public service. Carter’s unexpected return note was extraordinarily gracious.

As we continued our dinner, we recounted the bitter Democratic Party presidential primary fight in 1980 between Carter and Kennedy. We especially recalled the awkward moment on the convention stage when, after Carter secured the nomination, he unsuccessfully tried to get Kennedy to shake hands and pose together. It must have been painfully embarrassing for the sitting president to unsuccessfully chase the iconic senator around the convention stage for a photo op of unity that never happened. But Carter tried.

Poignantly, after we landed in Philadelphia, as we walked through the concourse, the first voice we heard on an airport television, delivering a touching elegy for Kennedy, was Carter, speaking via satellite link from Israel. We cried.

The respectful attention deservedly being paid to Carter’s remarkable life and career provides us with a powerful teaching moment. Not a bad lesson for law students and lawyers from a life well lived by a great teacher.

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Nicholas W. Allard is the founding Randall C. Berg Jr. dean of the Jacksonville University College of Law in Florida and previously was the president and dean of the Brooklyn Law School in New York. Allard has worked as the chair of the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress, as the chair of its Communications Committee, as a member of the ABA Government Relations Committee, and as a member of its Task Force on Lobbying Reform.

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ABAJournal.com is accepting queries for original, thoughtful, nonpromotional articles and commentary by unpaid contributors to run in the Your Voice section. Details and submission guidelines are posted at “Your Submissions, Your Voice.”

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This column reflects the opinions of the author and not necessarily the views of the ABA Journal—or the American Bar Association.

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Constitutional Law

‘Intriguing point’ in Trump SCOTUS brief could mean his vice president would replace him after an election win

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 4, 2024, 11:28 am CST

In U.S. Supreme Court briefs seeking ballot access, former President Donald Trump and his former U.S. solicitor general are making an argument that could lead to a vice presidential candidate becoming president, according to Jeannie Suk Gersen, a Harvard Law School professor.

Trump’s argument is in his cert petition, filed Wednesday, which asks the Supreme Court to overturn a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that bans him from the primary ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. The provision bars people from holding U.S. office if they engaged in insurrection or rebellion after taking an oath “to support the Constitution of the United States.”

Trump’s focus on the disqualification clause in Section 3 raises an “intriguing point,” according to Gersen’s Daily Comment article for the New Yorker. At issue is a sentence in Section 3 that reads, “But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”

According to Gersen, Trump’s argument is that the clause is about holding office, and it doesn’t prevent anyone, even an insurrectionist, from running or being elected to office because it is always possible that Congress will vote to allow the person to hold office.

The argument is “the centerpiece” of an amicus brief also filed Wednesday on behalf of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and its chair, Gersen said.

Partly written by Noel Francisco, former solicitor general in the Trump administration, the brief argues that, whether or not Section 3 applies, “it unquestionably does not allow Colorado to exclude President Trump from the ballot.” Section 3 bars disqualified people from serving in office but not from running, the brief argues.

The Colorado Supreme Court “effectively usurped Congress’ sole authority to decide when, if at all, to remove any Section 3 disqualification,” the brief argues.

That means that Trump can still run and seek removal of the disqualification, if there is one. What happens after a win and before a qualification vote is governed by the 20th Amendment, which says the vice president must serve as acting president until the president is qualified, the brief says.

“But, of course, there is no guarantee that if Trump is elected in November, Congress will lift his disqualification,” Gersen wrote, “especially because Congress is unlikely to reach the high bar of two-thirds of each house that is needed to do so. That implies that voters who believe that Trump is disqualified as an insurrectionist have the ability to elect him expecting that his running mate will be president, possibly throughout the four-year term.”

See also:

“GOP can put Trump on primary ballot, even if he is ineligible for office, top Minnesota court rules”

“Why Colorado judge kept Trump on ballot despite finding he engaged in insurrection”

WASHINGTON – Today, the Bureau of Land Management announced that it will begin assessing targeted updates to energy corridors across the West, to help speed deployment of transmission infrastructure. The analysis will examine potential changes to the designations that could strengthen energy security, promote renewable energy development in the West, improve reliability, relieve congestion, and enhance the capability of the national grid to deliver electricity. Approximately 673 miles of seven designated energy corridors may potentially be modified.

“Transmission is a vital piece of moving our country to a clean energy economy,” said BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning. “These updates will help plot a course for successful transmission deployment in order to bring renewable energy to markets across the West.”

The BLM will use a $1.2 million investment from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to support this effort. This work is central to the Investing in America agenda and supports broader Biden-Harris Administration efforts on efficient siting and permitting of transmission lines.

These corridors, known as West-wide energy or Section 368 corridors, stretch across Western states and help guide responsible buildout of transmission lines and other uses to balance the need for delivering clean energy with protecting America’s lands, water, and wildlife habitat. 

Making revisions to these corridors, originally designated in 2009, requires interstate coordination and national-level planning to be implemented efficiently and effectively. BLM began internal planning for this effort using BLM’s Regional Review Final Report. The seven prioritized, specific energy corridors will affect 19 resource management plans across Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

In January 2009, the BLM and the Forest Service issued land-use planning decisions designating approximately 6,000 miles of West-wide energy corridors, consistent with the direction in Section 368 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. These designations are intended to serve as preferred locations on Federally managed lands for the siting of electric transmission and distribution lines and pipelines, including hydrogen pipelines.

As part of a settlement to resolve a lawsuit challenging the corridor designation decisions, the BLM and Forest Service agreed to review and consider recommendations for revisions, deletions, and additions of the corridors. The BLM’s current planning effort will evaluate the recommendations to modify some of the designated West-wide corridors, in part to ensure avoidance of significant known resource and environmental conflicts. The project’s total cost is $1.9 million.

The BLM will hold four in-person and two virtual public scoping meetings to collect comments and local input. (Locations and times follow, and all times are Mountain Standard):

In-Person Meetings:

• January 9, 2024 – Cedar City, UT: Cedar City Heritage Center, 96 N. Main St. (4 p.m. to 7 p.m.)
• January 10, 2024 – Laughlin, NV: Laughlin Regional Government Center, 101 Civic Way (4 p.m. to 7 p.m.)
• January 11, 2024 – Phoenix, AZ: BLM National Training Center, 9828 N. 31st Avenue (4 p.m. to 7 p.m.)
• January 17, 2024 – Craig, CO BLM Little Snake Field Office, 455 Emerson Street (4 p.m. to 7 p.m.)

Virtual Meetings: Visit EplanningUi (blm.gov) to register

• January 9, 2024 (10 a.m. to 11 a.m.)
• January 18, 2024 (10 a.m. to 11 a.m.)

For more information, please visit the Section 368 Energy Corridors Regional Review Revisions ePlanning website https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2022227/510 at the West-wide Energy Corridor Information Center website at http://corridoreis.anl.gov, or contact Crystal Hoyt, BLM National Project Lead, at choyt@blm.gov or 307-352-0322.