The Last Line of Defense: The Courts vs. Trump
The Intercept Briefing
The Intercept
4.8 • 6.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2025
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Elon Musk steps away from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the chaotic legacy of his aggressive assault on federal agencies continues to reverberate throughout the government. Musk’s goal — slashing $1 trillion from the federal budget — has fallen far short. At most, it has cut $31.8 billion of federal funding, a number that the Financial Times reports is “opaque and overstated.” Notably, the richest man on Earth’s businesses have received a comparable amount of government funding, most of it going to SpaceX, which remains untouched by DOGE’s budget ax.
Stepping in to carry the torch is Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, and a key architect of Project 2025, the sweeping conservative playbook to consolidate executive power. Under his stewardship, DOGE will continue its mission to dismantle the federal government from within.
”Access to all of this information gives extraordinary power to the worst people,” says Mark Lemley, the director of Stanford Law School’s program in law, science, and technology. Lemley is suing DOGE on behalf of federal employees for violating the Privacy Act.
This week on The Intercept Briefing, Lemley and Intercept newsroom counsel and reporter Shawn Musgrave join host Jordan Uhl to take stock of the legal challenges mounting against the Trump administration’s agenda. As the executive branch grows more hostile to checks on its powers, the courts remain the last, fragile line of defense.
“ There have now been hundreds of court decisions on issues, some involving the Privacy Act, but a wide variety of the Trump administration's illegal activities,” says Lemley. In partnership with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and State Democracy Defenders, Lemley’s suit accuses the U.S. Office of Personnel Management of violating the federal Privacy Act by handing over sensitive data to DOGE without consent or legal authority.
Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Intercept Briefing. I'm Jordan Yule. |
| 0:07.0 | We are going to suspend the writ of habeas corpus if the courts keep ruling against this |
| 0:14.0 | and don't allow these mass deportations to continue. |
| 0:17.0 | Well, the Constitution is clear, and that of of course, is the supreme law of the land, |
| 0:21.5 | that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of... |
| 0:26.4 | For months now, we've been barreling towards an unprecedented constitutional crisis, |
| 0:31.9 | fueled by an administration that openly defies democratic norms and treats the rule of law as optional. |
| 0:39.3 | In just the last few days, Maga spokesman Steve Bannon and top Trump aide Stephen Miller |
| 0:46.3 | have doubled down on their belief that the administration can and will detain people indefinitely without charges or a day in court. |
| 0:58.4 | Meanwhile, the court's struggle to serve as an effective check on executive power. |
| 1:04.0 | The pattern we've witnessed again and again is disturbing. |
| 1:08.4 | Executive orders that push legal boundaries, deliberate attempts to circumvent |
| 1:13.1 | the rule of law, open defiance of court rulings, and an administration that treats the |
| 1:20.4 | judicial branch as an inconvenient obstacle rather than an equal branch of government. |
| 1:26.9 | As the courts have attempted to enforce long accepted constraints on executive power, |
| 1:32.9 | we've seen a revealing stress test of our constitutional framework. |
| 1:37.8 | Can our legal system effectively restrain a president determined to expand his authority? |
| 1:45.6 | Joining us to discuss this and more is Mark Lenley, the director of the Stanford University |
| 1:51.8 | program in law, science, and technology. He is the author of 11 books, whose work has been |
| 1:58.2 | cited hundreds of times by the courts, including the Supreme Court. |
| 2:03.0 | Mark helped lead an effort by hundreds of law professors to push back on the Trump administration's |
| 2:08.8 | targeting of certain law firms. He is also one of the lawyers who filed a lawsuit against |
... |
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