California Battles Trump’s Executive Orders in Court as Legal and Political Tensions Rise

After returning to the Oval Office in January, President Donald Trump unleashed a flurry of executive orders, sparking legal battles while raising alarms among some policy experts over the broader implications of Trump’s expanding authority.

“It’s unprecedented that this amount of executive power would be exercised over so many major elements of the national government,” said Larry Gerston, a professor emeritus of political science at San José State University. “It certainly has the potential of restructuring the way our government works.”

In recent weeks, Trump signed more than 60 executive orders, including federal funding freezes and a bid to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, both temporarily blocked by federal courts. As legal battles unfold, political scientists, including Gerston, are watching whether congressional Republicans will push back or fall in line with Trump’s aggressive use of executive authority.

Presidents have used executive orders for hundreds of years to interpret and implement existing legislation, and they are fragile by design, Gerston said. He noted that a presidential order can be overturned if Congress chooses to pass legislation invalidating it. With Republicans controlling both the House of Representatives and the Senate, Congress has largely stayed silent, he said.

State leaders and civil rights groups from across the country have challenged Trump’s orders. In California, a federal judge this week temporarily blocked the administration’s plan to slash research funding for institutions and universities after more than 20 attorneys general filed suit against top health agencies. Meanwhile, inspectors general from eight federal agencies are taking Trump to court over his abrupt dismissal of 17 watchdogs last month without notifying Congress.

“People need to realize that much of what the president is doing could be stopped in a nanosecond if Congress stepped up,” Gerston said. “Congress — by virtue of doing nothing — is not only acceding to the president’s actions but emboldening him.”

The judicial branch can strike down a president’s actions as unconstitutional, but challenges must first work their way through the courts, a process that varies in length and outcome, Gerston said. With legal battles often uncertain, he emphasized that Congress must step up and fulfill its role in the system of checks and balances.

“To the extent that the executive branch and Trump’s power grows, it’s certainly going to lead to a different set of roles for the national government,” Gerston said. “I firmly expect that the elections in 2026 will give us a major insight into whether people find what’s done [is] acceptable or not … That will tell us much more about where our democracy is going.”

Vice President JD Vance said in a post on social media platform X last week that judges are not permitted to challenge a president’s executive powers, adding fuel to the debate over how far the authority of the president goes.

“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal,” Vance said in the post. “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has vigorously challenged Trump’s orders in court multiple times over the past few weeks, staunchly defending the state’s commitment to protecting transgender youth and immigrant communities. He’s also gone head-to-head with the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk after Trump appointed him to the unelected office, over federal funding cuts and raised concerns regarding data security.

The department, established by Trump early in his term to curb wasteful government spending, has advocated for federal employee layoffs, cuts to the Department of Education and pushing for the dismantling of USAID and other agencies. This has raised critical questions about whether the executive branch holds the authority to dictate the allocation of federal funding.

Congresswoman Lateefah Simon, D-CA, told KQED’s Forum on Thursday that the idea of any government official appointing a “best friend” to dismantle departments and agencies without prior experience is unacceptable. The executive branch, she said, does not have control over the purse.

Trump has no qualms about violating the Constitution and the limits of his authority and has done so repeatedly since coming into office, Bonta said.

“The president has acted outside his executive authority, and he’s done it multiple times,” Bonta told KQED. “The Constitution sets forth what authority the president has. The Constitution has deliberately and intentionally dispersed power throughout different branches of government and between the federal government and the state so that power is not consolidated in one place. That is by design.”

Every government official has a responsibility to uphold the Constitution, he said. Attorneys general are exercising their powers to challenge Trump when necessary, and the courts are fulfilling their role in determining the constitutionality of his directives. However, he stressed that Congress must also take a stand when Trump issues orders that exceed his presidential power.

Trump “likes to do what he wants,” Bonta said. “That’s his version of executive authority, and it’s unconstitutional, and it’s unlawful.”

That’s why the system of checks and balances is a crucial part of protecting American democracy, Bonta said. When people hear about executive orders being challenged in court, that’s the system working as it should.

Bonta also warned people against giving into the flood zone of executive orders and directives issued by the Trump administration. If the president is violating the Constitution, there are safeguards in place to address illegal executive actions.

“Feelings of fatigue, defeat, anxiety, fear, sadness, it’s being created by design by the Trump administration,” Bonta said. “Instead of shrinking back, lean in and double down and fight in all the ways that you can. The president has authority, but the president does not have unlimited power … The democracy is for us.”