# What happens if the Executive Branch defies a Supreme Court order? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2025, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-the-executive-branch-defies-a-supreme-court-order/1019485 "2025-06-11T18:14:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-the-executive-branch-defies-a-supreme-court-order/1019485/21 "2025-06-12T18:53:54Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > the government could not prevent the courts from issuing a judgement and then an order that the bank pay up the damages. What “the bank”? ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-the-executive-branch-defies-a-supreme-court-order/1019485/22 "2025-06-12T19:17:13Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > What “the bank”? I suppose nobody’s tried to force the government to pay its debt in court so far. One item that comes to mind is attaching payments that employers or tariff payers make to the government via their bank which would normally then be forwarded to whatever account the IRS or Customs use. IANAL, but I’m sure there are ways. Presumably, the next best thing would be like the couple who sued a bank that refused to pay up, so they eventually got bailiffs to come and start seizing computers and office furniture from one of the branches. Impound and auction off a couple of ICE vehicles? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-the-executive-branch-defies-a-supreme-court-order/1019485/23 "2025-06-12T20:08:08Z")
The Constitution doesn’t offer much guidance. I think if you were to ask the Framers, this is where they’d expect the people to rise up and depose the government. But, of course, the Framers would generally have expected a tyrant who tried to take the government by power, not by gaining popularity and using democratic systems to enforce rule over a minority that shuns weapons. Of course, the Framers strongly opposed democratic systems so…whatever the outcome, IMHO, restoring some guardrails seems advisable. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-the-executive-branch-defies-a-supreme-court-order/1019485/24 "2025-06-12T20:12:38Z")
As far as I can tell going back as far as 2016, he has never obeyed a court order and never suffered any consequences for it. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-the-executive-branch-defies-a-supreme-court-order/1019485/25 "2025-06-12T20:47:34Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > While governors can appoint new ones, there wasn’t a senate president to swear the new ones in & none to elect a new senate president. The first senate got sworn in somehow. They could probably find a magistrate somewhere to do it. (Coolidge was sworn in by his magistrate father). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-if-the-executive-branch-defies-a-supreme-court-order/1019485.md?page=1)