Trump flouts lower court rulings in unprecedented display of executive power, and ‘respect for the rule of law is likely to break down’
An Associated Press analysis published May 2, 2026 found that during the second Trump administration’s first 15 months, district court judges have ruled the executive branch in violation of court orders in at least 31 separate lawsuits — roughly one of every eight cases in which courts have at least temporarily blocked administration action. Cited examples include continued denial of bond hearings to detained immigrants after Judge Sunshine Sykes’s ruling, deportations of accused gang members to El Salvador in defiance of injunctions, and refusal to restore Voice of America programming. Legal scholars and former federal judges quoted in the piece contrast this pattern with prior administrations, which they describe as generally apologetic in the rare instances of noncompliance, and warn that “respect for the rule of law is likely to break down” if defiance becomes routine. The story situates Justice Department lawyers and senior political appointees as agents of this defiance.