Jed Rubenfeld: Trump Tests His Constitutional Limits
President Trump raises his fist before boarding Marine One as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on September 7, 2025. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
From tariffs and the National Guard deployments to Trump’s bombing of a Venezuelan boat and attempt to fire a member of the Fed, our legal columnist assesses whether the president is acting lawfully.
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When it comes to the president and the law, what used to be once-in-a-generation controversies now seem to happen every other day.
Here are the four biggest recent flashpoints, and my view on where the law stands. I’m a constitutional law professor at Yale, and as my readers know, I try to call balls and strikes without favor or disfavor to the administration. Trump is certainly pushing the boundaries of his authority, but in two of the four controversies I think Trump has the law on his side. On the other two, he may have crossed the constitutional line. Let’s take them one at a time.
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