31st March 2025
What constitutional commentary can do and what constitutional commentary cannot do
There are many who are anxious and alarmed at what is unfolding in the United States.
And they are right to be anxious and alarmed – indeed, any other overall response would be strange given what is happening.
There is a certain cruelty in a good deal of what the US government is doing with its executive orders and other measures – and cruelty which is an end in and of itself.
As Adam Serwer rightly out it in his prescient 2018 article and subsequent book, this cruelty is the point.

Nothing in this post should be taken to gainsay this sense of anxiety and alarm – and still less to dismiss or discredit it. It is a perfectly sensible reaction to an unpleasant developing situation. There is nastiness and vileness, and it is horrific.
*
This post instead is about the limits of constitutional (and legal and perhaps even political) commentary to meet this anxiety and alarm.
For example, there is only so many times a constitutional commentator can usefully respond to the increasingly common “But what if…?” queries about possible future developments.
Today, one issue is about whether President Trump will somehow find a way to serve a third term, notwithstanding what appear (at least at first glance) to be a clear prohibition in the US constitution.
– But what if….he tried?
Well, the constitutional commentator may respond, there are these provisions in the US constitution which would appear to prohibit such a thing, and if those provisions were contested or defied it would be likely to ultimately end up at the supreme court.
– But what if….that did not work?
And it is at this second “But what if…?” that constitutional commentary effectively breaks down and offers no further useful aid to the person pressing for further answers.
A constitutional commentator may perhaps have a go at putting together a further answer, if they are feeling helpful, but both the questioner and the commentator are now leaving the realm of constitutional commentary and entering the world of speculation instead.
For there is only so much a constitutional commentator can say in response to “But what if…?”.
They can set out what the constitution provides for that eventuality and what mechanism can be applied to resolve any tension or dispute. But that is all they can do, for that is all a constitution is.
As a general (not universal) rule-of-thumb, the second “But what if…?” is the limit of any useful exchange about any constitutional query.
With the third and fourth “But what if…?” the value of any constitutional commentary will tend to fall to zero.
And that is because of the nature of constitutional arrangements: they only provide “the rules of the game” for foreseeable situations.
(In addition, few if any constitutional commentators are competent or qualified to deal with the anxiety and alarm of others. Indeed, constitutional commentators are (if they are candid) likely to make such anxiety and alarm even worse.)
*
All this said, here are some general points about the current constitutional situation in the United States which may provide some comfort.
First, the US government is (or is insisting) that it is complying with court orders. Yes, there are political and media figures boasting about breaching “unconstitutional” court orders – but in the court room, the US government lawyers are saying orders are being complied with.
Second, Trump and his supporters are again seeking to game the US constitution rather than breach it outright. You may recall the “January 6” violence was in respect of an attempt to get the vice-president and senate to exercise their constitutional function in respect of counting and certifying the electoral college in the favour of the losing candidate.
That clever-clever, elaborate (and misconceived) constitutional ploy failed, regardless of the violence. There is no more inherent reason to believe that the new clever-clever, elaborate (and misconceived) constitutional ploys for a third term will work.
Third, the federal executive does not have a monopoly of political power: even with a weak legislature, the federal judiciary and the states also have powers. Any analysis of scenario needs to take account not only of what powers the federal executive have (or wants to have) but which ones it does not.
*
At this point, a constitutional commentator setting that there are other possible outcomes than catastrophe is accused of “complacency” or “optimism”.
Alas, I am a deep pessimist when it comes to constitutional matters.
My pessimism is deeper than many will imagine.
For me it is a minor miracle that any human gathering greater than Dunbar’s Number ever endures, without breaking up in violence and recriminations.
(It really is not a surprise that every other species in the genus Homo became extinct, despite us supposedly being the most intelligent creatures to have yet evolved: and Homo sapiens have this immense capacity for violence against other members of our own species, and the capacity to make tools as weapons for this violence.)
Constitutions are precarious things, and at some point they will all tend to fail.
The questions are when and how.
The pre-conditions are there for the US constitution to fail – and for the current crisis to become either a civil conflict or the basis of a totalitarian state.
But at the moment, there are still other possible, more positive outcomes.
*
Again, setting out the limitations of constitutional commentary is not to gainsay the current alarm and anxiety.
And “But what if…?” can actually be a useful question the first time it is asked – and, indeed, thought experiments are sometimes helpful or revealing.
But an infinite regression of “But what if…?” questions to a constitutional commentator helps nobody. It does not help the questioner, for no answer will address the underlying alarm and anxiety, and it does not help the commentator, who will have no useful answers.
The only thing that constitutional commentary can do is to look at the constant stream of heres-and-nows, and to set out contexts and possible outcomes.
It is a plodding, limited, often thankless task.
And let us hope that one day, constitutional law becomes dull again.
***
Comments Policy
This blog enjoys a high standard of comments, many of which are better and more interesting than the posts.
Comments are welcome, but they are pre-moderated and comments will not be published if irksome, or if they risk derailing the discussion.
More on the comments policy is here.