Jeff Bleich with David Chiu: Trump's Clash with the Courts

Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office in late January, he has let loose with a flurry of executive orders, purges of government workers, takeovers of semi-independent organizations, and defunding of numerous organizations and causes. The administration has faced setbacks in courts, with judges challenging and contradicting its actions. But what happens if Trump openly defies a judge? What happens if he ignores a Supreme Court ruling? Join us for a timely conversation on Trump and the judiciary with Jeff Bleich, former U.S. ambassador and advisor to President Barack Obama and a visiting scholar at Stanford, and David Chiu, city attorney of San Francisco.

Bleich argues that Trump could be following the path blazed by autocrats Vladimir Putin and Victor Orban by seeking to strip courts of powers and then purge the judiciary. The result, unprecedented in the United States, would be an executive branch untethered to the rule of law.

For his part, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu has made headlines for his legal challenges to some of President Trump’s executive orders and other actions. Chiu’s office has been involved with several successful lawsuits against the administration, including cases challenging the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers and cutting of funding for homelessness over DEI issues.

How will judges respond? What can Congress do? What can you do? Find out when Jeff Bleich and David Chiu joins us for a very important program

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