Wait, Can He Actually Do That? Table of Contents (Will Be Updated Regularly)

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Four days after Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term as U.S. president, I wrote an essay for this blog titled Wait, Can He Actually Do That? Part 1: Overview and TikTok Executive Order. In it, I explained that, given the number of actions of dubious legality by President Trump and his administration, I envisioned a roughly weekly (or even more frequent) series. I am sorry to say that I was right to worry. Since then, I have been adding entries to the series in response to some, but hardly all, of the Trump administration's efforts to undermine the rule of law.

Meanwhile, some of my other writings and those of my co-bloggers not titled with the "Wait, Can He Actually Do That?" brand could also be included in the series. For simplicity, however, the running list below--which I'll update each time I write a new entry in the series--includes only those essays that I've formally designated as part of the series.

Meanwhile, as I've noted in various of the essays in this series, I might have titled the series Can He Get Away With That? That's because in just about each controversy I examine, the answer to the legal question is that the Trump administration is acting unlawfully, often in multiple ways. Nonetheless, there remains a question whether the courts (or other actors) will stop him, i.e., whether he will get away with breaking the law.

That said, I'm content to leave the series title as I originally devised it, mostly because my expertise is in law. Whether Trump can get away with his lawbreaking is more a question about human psychology or perhaps moral fiber: whether enough people have the courage to take a stand against illegality, stupidity, and cruelty. I have views but no special insight with respect to that kind of question.











--Michael C. Dorf