Hi, Ruth. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having me. There's been a lot of talk

since the early days of Trump's second term about an impending constitutional crisis. Would you say

that we're there? And if we are there, then what exactly was the triggering event in your mind?

Well, there's no definition of constitutional crisis that you can look up in the law books.

Crisis is not a word in the Constitution. And I want to say there has been talk since even before

Trump took office about the prospect of a constitutional crisis.

And the reason that there's been talk about that is that people very close to Trump,

including the vice president of the United States, who is a graduate of Yale Law School,

have talked about simply ignoring court orders.

And that's what he would advise the president

to do if it came to that. And so this is something that has been brewing for a long time,

but just this past Monday, in particular when we saw the administration say basically,

oopsie, to a very well-respected district court judge.

And we're not even going to tell you anything about these planes of full of Venezuelans that we sent to El Salvador.

That was as close to constitutional crisis as we have seen in this country, not just during my lifetime,

but pretty much ever. And whatever people say about what constitutes a constitutional crisis, it has to be when the separation of powers no longer works.

That is, when one branch of government that is supposed to have the authority to tell the other branch of government what the law means,

that is the judiciary telling the president what the law means, and when the president stops respecting that,

that is what has happened.

And that is why I think, that is what has happened.

And that is why I think constitutional crisis, as overblown as that word sounds, that phrase sounds, is precisely where we are.

Ruth Marcus is a former Washington Post reporter who has covered the courts for years.

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