Jason Willick

Staff Columnist at Washington Post Opinions

Washington Post columnist. Law, politics, foreign policy. Email: [email protected]

Articles

The Supreme Court’s crafty Trump rebuke

2 weeks ago | washingtonpost.com | Jason Willick

The Supreme Court’s crafty Trump rebuke (washingtonpost.com) The Supreme Court’s crafty Trump rebuke By Jason Willick 2025040820560000 The Trump administration is preening after the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling Monday night on the Alien Enemies Act, the war powers law it used last month to summarily deport Venezuelan migrants before courts could intervene. "President Trump was proven RIGHT once again," Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi L. Noem said on X.
The White House tries a Supreme Court bait and switch

3 weeks ago | washingtonpost.com | Jason Willick

The White House tries a Supreme Court bait and switch (washingtonpost.com) The White House tries a Supreme Court bait and switch By Jason Willick 2025040210151700 The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to let it resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), a 1798 law that gives the president special powers in war-like situations.
Two theories about Trump's judicial confrontation

1 month ago | washingtonpost.com | Jason Willick
Can the Supreme Court defuse Trump's judicial brawl?

1 month ago | washingtonpost.com | Jason Willick

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was right on the merits when he said in a rare statement on Tuesday that impeaching judges "is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision." But it might have been better not to amplify President Donald Trump's social media whining with a response. The Supreme Court's decisions and the legal landscape they create are what will constrain, or fail to constrain, the White House and its cowboy lawyers.
A provocative experiment pits AI against federal judges

1 month ago | washingtonpost.com | Jason Willick
Ukraine is to the populist right as Israel is to the progressive left

1 month ago | washingtonpost.com | Jason Willick

President Donald Trump is trying to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into a peace agreement with Russia by browbeating Zelensky rhetorically and withholding military aid as leverage. This playbook has stunned Washington, but it shouldn't be entirely unfamiliar: For much of 2024, progressive Democrats pleaded with the Biden administration to deploy a similar approach against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the war with Hamas.
Pam Bondi's Jeffrey Epstein stunt reveals populism's limits

1 month ago | washingtonpost.com | Jason Willick

Donald Trump is president for a second time because Americans have lost trust in institutions, and he has stacked his administration with populist bomb-throwers. Now they're in a position to actually prove the claims of elite perfidy they have indulged and encouraged. But what if they can't?
The Roberts court's first Trump II move: A quick sidestep

2 months ago | washingtonpost.com | Jason Willick

The first executive power case to reach the Supreme Court in President Donald Trump's second term wasn't really about the plaintiff, Hampton Dellinger, a federal officer Trump fired two weeks ago. It was about what signal the court would send to the architects of the White House's aggressive executive power agenda and the mostly liberal lower court judges who are trying just as aggressively to block it.
Trump's Justice Department bungles the Eric Adams case dismissal

2 months ago | washingtonpost.com | Jason Willick

The Justice Department's independence from politics has always been a matter of rituals and appearances more than reality. The Supreme Court confirmed last year that the president has "exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials."But rituals and appearances matter, and the fact that the president controls federal prosecutors doesn't mean he can wield that power crudely and ostentatiously without paying a political price.
Anatomy of a constitutional panic

2 months ago | washingtonpost.com | Jason Willick

The Trump administration moves fast and breaks norms. Democrats run to court before it's clear what's happening. In the middle of the night, a judge issues an overbroad emergency injunction. Republicans inveigh against the courts. The media screams constitutional crisis. The next part gets less attention: The court, realizing it was sloppy, walks back the most far-reaching part of its order. Back to business as usual, at least until the next round.

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Jason Willick @jawillick

12 Apr 25

RT @jawillick: The dilemma for the administration—and what they’re presumably stalling to think about—is how to release Abrego Garcia while…

Jason Willick @jawillick

11 Apr 25

The dilemma for the administration—and what they’re presumably stalling to think about—is how to release Abrego Garcia while maintaining the fiction that they can’t release others in CECOT.

Jason Willick @jawillick

11 Apr 25

What makes you think the contemptuous WH & DOJ staff are non lawyers? This isn’t about credentials!

Ed Whelan @EdWhelanEPPC

Sure seems that DOJ’s litigation decisions are being directed by non-lawyers in the White House who don’t know much about the courts and who are eager to treat them contemptuously.