Conversation

This is what a constitutional crisis looks like. There isn't some person who's going to go on the news and say "Today, it was today! Now it's a crisis!". It isn't the military in the streets with riot gear (although if you live in San Francisco or Chicago you will see that eventually I'm sure.)

It's this. It's government lawyers arguing to the court in bad faith. It's violating the spirit of a judge's order while coming up with more and yet more implausible reasons why they didn't violate the letter. It's judges twisting and flipping around to try to hold someone to account, while knowing they don't actually have the power to do so if the executive branch flouts the courts' legitimate authority. Criminal charges and penalties don't work if the DOJ refuses to bring the case. And the president's pardon power is absolute.

The constitutional crisis isn't martial law or a total usurping of everyone's rights all at once. It's the government picking its fights and deciding that these couple, it will overrule the constitution on. It's not all of them. And it's not all of the laws or constitutional tenants that it will violate.

But this is enough. The more the administration ignores the courts, the more they will have to, and the easier it will be to do again.