The United States has entered into the maelstrom of a constitutional crisis.

Constitutional lawyers and legal historians seem to agree that Elon Musk’s actions and the Trump administration’s broader attempts to disrupt federal agencies have created an unprecedented constitutional crisis in the nation.

The New York Times reports that “There is no universally accepted definition of a constitutional crisis, but legal scholars agree about some of its characteristics. It is generally the product of presidential defiance of laws and judicial rulings. It is not binary: It is a slope, not a switch. It can be cumulative, and once one starts, it can get much worse.”

“It can also be obvious, said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. ‘We are in the midst of a constitutional crisis right now,’ he said on Friday. ‘There have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the Trump presidency. We never have seen anything like this.'”

Professor Chemerinsky “ticked off examples of what he called President Trump’s lawless conduct: revoking birthright citizenship, freezing federal spending, shutting down an agency, removing leaders of other agencies, firing government employees subject to civil service protections and threatening to deport people based on their political views,” according to The New York Times.

“That is a partial list, Professor Chemerinsky said, and it grows by the day. ‘Systematic unconstitutional and illegal acts create a constitutional crisis,’ he said.”

Kate Shaw, Professor of Law (University of Pennsylvania) argues that “the administration’s early moves … also seem designed to demonstrate maximum contempt for core constitutional values — the separation of powers, the freedom of speech, equal justice under law.”

Adam Liptak, “Trump’s Actions have Created a Constitutional Crisis, Scholars Say,” The New York Times (10 February 2025).

The Washington Post and The Atlantic also report on the growing constitutional crisis in the United States.