{"id":2374885,"date":"2024-12-01T05:22:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-01T10:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trumps-vow-to-use-impoundment-sets-up-supreme-court-clash-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-12-01T05:23:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-01T10:23:23","slug":"trumps-vow-to-use-impoundment-sets-up-supreme-court-clash-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trumps-vow-to-use-impoundment-sets-up-supreme-court-clash-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s vow to use &#8216;impoundment&#8217; sets up Supreme Court clash &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrumps-vow-to-use-impoundment-sets-up-supreme-court-clash-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2374885&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article examines President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s plans to utilize \u2063a\u200b controversial legal \u200ctheory known as impoundment to\u2062 reduce the size \u2062and scope of the\u2064 federal government. Impoundment allows a president to withhold or ignore funding appropriated by Congress\u200b for programs deemed unsuitable. This approach may lead \u2064to \u2063significant legal challenges, potentially culminating\u200c in a Supreme Court \u2064battle. The \u2064Constitution\u200d grants \u2064Congress \u2062the exclusive authority to appropriate\u2063 funds, but Trump and his advisors argue that Article II provides\u2063 the president with \u2062the right to manage federal\u200b expenditures, asserting that \u200cprevious presidents \u200dhave practiced impoundment.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s Administration faced scrutiny over impoundment issues \u2064during former President Joe\u200d Biden\u2019s tenure, particularly regarding attempts to redirect border wall\u200d funding. Trump&#8217;s \u200dnominee for the \u2062Office of Management \u200cand \u2062Budget, Russ \u2064Vought, \u200dactively promotes\u200d this legal \u2062strategy, \u2064claiming that \u2064restoring impoundment authority is\u2062 crucial for controlling \u200cgovernment spending. Additionally, Trump plans to appoint \u200bElon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead efforts in reducing federal waste,\u2064 indicating potential far-reaching cuts to governmental agencies. Such actions could <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">prompt \u200cwidespread\u200d legal disputes<\/a> over the \u200bpresident&#8217;s unilateral authority to restructure federal\u200c operations, especially against a backdrop \u2062of a\u2064 conservative Supreme Court majority.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Trump&rsquo;s war on federal bureaucracy could trigger Supreme Court battle<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1896565\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>President-elect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Donald Trump<\/a> and his top advisers have long cited impoundment, a little-known legal theory, as a means of shrinking the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/federal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">federal<\/a> government. But, pursuing that path will almost assuredly bring the incoming administration before the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/supreme-court\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Supreme Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>The Constitution grants Congress sole authority to appropriate a federal budget, but impoundment theory essentially claims that any president has unilateral authority to ignore Congress&rsquo;s funding bills and withhold or &ldquo;impound&rdquo; funds meant for programs, agencies, or departments deemed unsuitable by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/white-house\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">White House<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The only catch? Congress passed legislation during the Nixon administration that required the president to spend funds appropriated by Congress.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/presidential\/3223892\/president-elect-donald-trump-cabinet-picks-list\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong>TRUMP CABINET PICKS: WHO&rsquo;S BEEN TAPPED TO SERVE IN THE PRESIDENT-ELECT&rsquo;S ADMINISTRATION<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The law caused President Joe Biden some <a href=\"https:\/\/budget.house.gov\/press-release\/gao-confirms-biden-administration-spends-border-security-funds-on-environmental-agenda\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"headaches\">headaches<\/a> in the fall of 2023 after he restarted construction on a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-faces-backlash-after-crushing-border-wall-developments\/\" title=\"Biden faces backlash after crushing border wall developments\">southern border wall<\/a>. The Biden White House claimed, at the time, that after seeking to claw back the funds appropriated under the first Trump administration, the president would be forced by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 to restart border wall construction.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Government Accountability Office <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/b-331564.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"found\">found<\/a> that Trump violated the Impoundment Control Act in 2019 when he tried to withhold security funds to Ukraine, which was at the heart of Democrats&rsquo; first impeachment case against the 45th president. <\/p>\n<p>Trump&rsquo;s team argues that the impoundment legislation is unconstitutional, claiming that Article II of the Constitution obligates the president to &ldquo;faithfully execute&rdquo; the law, including an implicit requirement not to enforce unconstitutional legislation. Trump&rsquo;s advisers claim that presidents dating back to Thomas Jefferson have impounded funds when necessary.<\/p>\n<p>Trump himself claims that Article II grants him &ldquo;the right to whatever I want as president&rdquo; and that impoundment is a &ldquo;crucial tool with which to obliterate the Deep State.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Russ Vought, Trump&rsquo;s nominee to lead the White House&rsquo;s Office of Management and Budget, has specifically championed impoundment in recent months.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/presidential\/3220757\/what-happens-donald-trump-president-elect\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong>WHAT HAPPENS NOW THAT TRUMP IS PRESIDENT-ELECT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I believe the loss of impoundment authority &mdash; which 200 years of presidents enjoyed &mdash; was the original sin in eliminating the ability from a branch &hellip; to control spending,&rdquo; he said during an interview with Fox Business earlier this year. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to need that back.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Vought, who also served as OMB director for the latter half of Trump&rsquo;s first term in office, has been working to popularize impoundment among conservative politicos throughout the Biden administration.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>ProPublica<\/em> unearthed audio of speeches Vought delivered in 2023 and 2024 at events hosted by the Center for Renewing America, the pro-Trump think tank he helmed during the Biden years, where he described executive means to combat a &ldquo;Marxist takeover&rdquo; of the federal government and shrink the federal bureaucracy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want President Trump having to lose a moment of time having fights in the Oval Office about whether something is legal or doable or moral,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/presidential\/3220465\/what-trump-promised-day-one-white-house\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong>WHAT TRUMP HAS PROMISED TO DO ON DAY 1 IN THE OVAL OFFICE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Trump lauded Vought in a statement announcing his nomination to OMB.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People,&rdquo; the president-elect wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has also tasked Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy with leading the&nbsp;Department of Government Efficiency,&nbsp;a new effort to curtail federal waste. The pair signaled a looming Supreme Court fight to enact sweeping cuts.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;With a decisive electoral mandate and a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, DOGE has a historic opportunity for structural reductions in the federal government. We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington,&rdquo; Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in a recent op-ed for the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em>. &ldquo;We expect to prevail.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/education\/3232494\/trump-wants-to-abolish-the-department-of-education\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong>HOW TRUMP&rsquo;S PROMISE TO ABOLISH THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WOULD WORK<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Any move by Trump to fire large swaths of the federal workforce, at the suggestion of DOGE, would launch a judiciary battle bound for the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;To the extent that you could try to implement it unilaterally, you would need some kind of authority to impound &mdash; to just not do what Congress has said you&rsquo;re supposed to do,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/11\/26\/nx-s1-5195528\/trump-impoundment-government-cuts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"said\">said<\/a> Bowdoin College professor Andrew Rudalevige, who specifically studies the powers of the presidency. &ldquo;It&rsquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-signals-slash-and-burn-approach-with-return-of-russell-vought-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Trump signals &#039;slash and burn&#039; approach with return of Russell Vought - Washington Examiner\">ll lead pretty directly<\/a> to constitutional conflict, but that, I think, is the only way that you could impose unilaterally presidential wishes in this area.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Trump advisers believe that the Supreme Court would side with the administration on an impoundment decision, a view shared by South Texas College of Law professor Josh Blackman.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The most relevant data point is that Chief Justice John Roberts worked in the Reagan White House,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/11\/26\/nx-s1-5195528\/trump-impoundment-government-cuts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"he claimed\">he told NPR<\/a>. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;d be very sympathetic to the arguments that were so influential in his earlier career, so I think Trump might actually have a shot at this one.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1896565\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1896565\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump&#8217;s fight against federal bureaucracy may lead to a Supreme Court case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2645,"featured_media":2374886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/trump-impound.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[45936,32869,32275,3634,32076],"class_list":["post-2374885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-impoundment","tag-legal-battle","tag-supreme-court","tag-trump","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/trump-impound.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2645"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2374885"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2374889,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374885\/revisions\/2374889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2374886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}