Attorney Alan Dershowitz said Monday that many of the injunctions blocking actions by President Donald Trump—including executive orders and efforts to address wasteful government spending—will likely be overturned on appeal.
The Trump administration is appealing multiple injunctions imposed by federal judges targeting the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order ending birthright citizenship, among others. Speaking on “The Dershow,” Dershowitz said these cases will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Nobody ever said that our system of checks and balances would make it easy to govern or would make it efficient to govern. No, no, the design of our system of checks and balances was to create enough power to govern effectively while, at the same time, denying any one part of our government enough power to create a tyranny,” Dershowitz explained.
He criticized the process in which state attorneys general file lawsuits against presidential actions, leading to judges temporarily halting executive policies. However, he noted that such rulings are typically appealed and often reversed in higher courts.
United States District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of the District of Rhode Island recently threatened Trump with criminal contempt charges over his executive order freezing certain federal spending. Dershowitz defended Trump’s legal standing, asserting that the president has never defied a court order and is exercising his right to appeal. “Many of these injunctions will be found to be improper,” he stated.
Dershowitz also criticized Democratic lawmakers who protested outside the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Treasury Department after Tesla CEO Elon Musk, acting as chairman of DOGE, announced plans to shut down USAID.
“People keep forgetting, the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy, the alphabet agencies. They are not an independent branch. They are part of the executive, and the executive is the president,” Dershowitz said. He noted that while Congress creates many federal agencies, their leadership ultimately serves under the president. “For example, the head of the FBI is confirmed, and all cabinet members are confirmed by the Senate, yet the president can fire any of those heads of agencies at his whim. He doesn’t even have to have a reason to do it.”
Dershowitz’s remarks highlight the ongoing legal and constitutional battles over executive authority as Trump pushes forward with aggressive policy reforms.