The Founders of the U.S. constitutional system separated the sword from the purse and divided governmental power for a reason, writes Judge Andrew Napolitano.
Trump’s image on a wall in Washington, D.C., July 2026. (Diane Krauthamer/ Flickr/ CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
In America, we have a Constitution to prevent the perception and the reality of the tyranny of one man’s opinion.
The Constitution’s Fifth Amendment makes clear that if the government wants life, liberty or property, it cannot take it by executive command, but only by due process — a fair jury trial and all its constitutional protections; and Article I makes it clear that if the government wants war, it cannot commence it by executive command, but only by congressional declaration.
We have a Constitution also to assure the separation of powers in the federal government.
Congress writes the laws, appropriates the taxpayers’ money and funds borrowed in their names and declares war when the United States is in danger of imminent foreign threat.
The president enforces the laws, spends money as Congress directs and wages the wars Congress has authorized.
The judiciary decides what the Constitution and the laws mean and, if properly challenged, determines if the president and Congress or the states have exercised their duties lawfully and constitutionally.
The central constitutional question is not whether a president sincerely believes that his policies are necessary. It is whether the Constitution permits personal liberty and limited government to depend upon the opinion of one man. That is the danger of executive government without effective legislative and judicial checks.
A fair reading of the Constitution begins with a truism: Presidential power is not whatever the president believes it to be. It is only what the Constitution and laws actually confer.
Consider the administration’s attacks on alleged drug-trafficking boats. President Donald Trump says he has directed military forces to strike narcotrafficking vessels and describes the operation as part of his campaign against fentanyl and cartels.
But the constitutional question is separate from the president’s characterization of the targets. A person suspected of being a drug trafficker — or even a mass murderer — does not thereby become condemned to death. Criminal guilt always requires accusation, evidence and adjudication according to law, before punishment.
These boat killings are unlawful extrajudicial executions. In the language all Americans can understand, they are murders.
Venezuelan speedboat moments before U.S. attack. (White House video via NBC News)
The same principle applies to Iran. The Framers deliberately divided the war powers. Article I gives Congress the power to declare war, authorize military force, regulate the armed forces and control appropriations.
Article II makes the president commander in chief. The distinction matters. The president commands forces; Congress determines where and under what circumstances the president does so.
Trump has openly declared an American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and said that the United States controls which ships pass through it. He has also imposed sanctions which deny food, medicine and currency stability to millions of innocent Iranians.
He even threatened to murder all Iranians — beyond the thousands he has already killed — if a peace agreement is not soon reached.
Those statements highlight what the Constitution was designed to prevent one individual from addressing alone: Whether the United States should wage military and economic hostilities against the population of another nation.
Congress has repeatedly resisted treating the Iran conflict as a matter solely for presidential discretion. Just two weeks ago, support for Trump’s war failed to muster majorities in both houses of Congress.
Nor can the president’s personal assessment of Iran’s nuclear intentions settle the matter. In 2018, his State Department’s compliance report said Iran was fulfilling its nuclear-related non-proliferation commitments and U.S. intelligence had assessed with high confidence that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.
In 2020, his State Department again said that Iran was not then engaged in key activities associated with designing and developing a nuclear weapon. In 2025, his Director of National Intelligence testified that the entire U.S. intelligence community continued to assess that Iran was not building nuclear weapons.
Those facts alone establish something constitutionally important: The president’s personal belief — whether informed or uninformed — is not evidence or law or a substitute for congressional authorization.
The same textual principle reaches domestic spending and taxation. Article I provides that only Congress can impose taxes and money may be drawn from the Treasury only pursuant to appropriations made by law.
Even though the Supreme Court has invalidated Trump’s tariffs, he continues to impose them. Even though Congress has not authorized funds for Trump’s vanity projects, he continues to spend tax dollars on them.
The Constitution does not grant any branch of government carte blanche. It has separated powers precisely because legislators, presidents and judges can all succumb to the corruption of power — and can all be wrong.
That is the deeper meaning of the tyranny of one man’s opinion. The danger is not merely that one president might be wrong. It is that a constitutional system becomes meaningless if one man’s conclusions about war, crime, taxation, spending, foreign threats or national security become the sole basis for government actions — particularly actions that kill innocents.
The Founders separated the sword from the purse and divided governmental power because they understood a truism: Personal liberty and limited government cannot long survive when entrusted to one man’s opinion.
Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, was the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel and hosts the podcast Judging Freedom. Judge Napolitano has written seven books on the U.S. Constitution. The most recent is Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Lethal Threat to American Liberty. To learn more about Judge Andrew Napolitano, visit here.
Published by permission of the author.
COPYRIGHT 2026 ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO
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The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
Agreed, “In America, we have a Constitution to prevent the perception and the reality of the tyranny of one man’s opinion.” Not for nothin’; but, America’s rock’n & roll’n under Trump’s-Vance’s, Inc.-Israel’s absolute power, vested (unconditionally guaranteed) by the U.S. Congress.
IMO, what “we” got is the constipation of America. Basically, POTUS, Israel, & the U.S. Congress are full of $h*t! What “we” need, is an evacuation plan outta the bowels of this $hit Show. Btw, The U.S. Constitution, so f/good, on paper, does not apply! Point blank, period.
Concluding, the U.S. Congress is not invested in “liberating” anybody from tyranny. Consequently, “the wars, they will be fought again. The holy dove, she will be caught, again. Bought & $old; AND, bought, again. The Dove is Never Free!” Anthem, Leonard Cohen.
The current hubris has been in the making since late 19th century with recalibrate troughs and crests that exhibit runaway, grotesque behaviour beyond given norms.
A series of cataclysms will follow e.g. nuclear, economic, natural and/or combination of human related excess ness will level the oligarchic rule to an emerging new trough.
The people will need to seize the moment to repudiate the past corruption and demand genuine democratic government. Regretfully millions of people will suffer until then; and others will face existential threats. Let’s stand our ground and remove the current world wide cancerous oligarchic structures.
Professor Richard Wolff got to the heart of the matter on TWTW. This 500 year old colonialist empire is nearing its end. The BRICS and SCO are building a new global economic infrastructure that is based on national sovereignty and cooperation rather than occupation enforced by violence for the purpose of plunder. All the countries involved have their own sets of problems to be sure, but it’s a good starting point to counter this antiquated system whose leaders are determined to keep the war on humanity for profit going at any cost.
Trump is a useful, but very dangerous idiot for the colonialists. I’m all for getting rid of him ASAP, but that won’t fix the root cause. This empire that is waging war on the world as it descends into darkness must be stopped before it can do its worst.
I think if one studies our country’s real history, we find that it’s by now controlled almost entirely by a literal mafia – a banker-led mafia that was long ago founded and is still headquartered in the City of London. After several attempts – e.g., the First and Second Banks of the United States, an attempted military coup less than a year after FDR took office (the Congressional hearing records from that event are still secret) – they succeeded in taking control of our economy on December 23rd, 1913, and succeeded with their political coup d’etat on November 22nd, 1963. Having gotten away, literally, with murder and grand theft for many decades now, they don’t believe the rule of law, or the Constitution, applies to them. Why would they? They’ve transformed our country into a global plunder and control operation, similar to but much more powerful than their British East India Company, back in the day. Who better to run their various rackets than Donald Trump – a third-tier racketeer who spent his career funneling money to the Western Mafia using real estate project debt-creation. He’s just the latest and most extreme zit on the ugly face of Western Mafia plunder capitalism. And, after several hundred years of building their Empire and severely punishing the disobedient, the Mafia isn’t about to roll over and allow the peasants to retake control of their country. We have a huge task ahead of us if we’re to finally establish a true constitutional republic. And the first task is to properly identify the enemy.
Amen brother! You nailed it. The Government is the Mafia.
Pepe Escobar calls them “the Epstein Syndicate.”
The the sword got a credit card for profit distribution to the accumulated wealth of all the previous I’ll gotten empires to keep permanent wars using each generation as fodder for newer better swords.
So with all that this article says by, how the hell is this orange ? pig ? able to get away with shredding the constitution and having a unconstitutional field day with the supporters and cheerleaders in government and the public , as well as his supporters loving it?!
The democrats are collaborators because they take money from AIPAC, etc. as well. Pepe Escobar: “Congress is the Knesset 2.0.”
The US is controlled by a foreign country so the constitution is shredded.
Money and power must have some amount of distribution. Trump shook things up because what he represented was able to accomplish things few presidents or people in other avenues of government could do. I think there is some reason to believe that balance of power continues to exist, as indicated in this article.
Thank you Judge, well said (as usual)….just one question.
According to the Constitution Article 2, Section 4; “The President shall be removed from office on impeachment for Bribery”
Since, by now, many Americans have personally witnessed President Trump’s promise(s) to pay every voter 5000$… if enough voters return the Republicans to power in Congress on Nov. 3, 2026…is that not sufficient evidence of Bribery to impeach and remove him from office?
FYI, Under Federal Bribery Law.
?? Per the Federal Legal Standard
• Anything of value: Federal statutes like 18 U.S.C. § 201 prohibit giving or receiving ” anything of value”, which includes property, services, promises, or preferential treatment.
• Offers and attempts: Simply offering, promising, or soliciting a bribe completes the offense, even if no payment is ever made or accepted.
• Equal penalties: Attempted bribery and soliciting a bribe carry the same maximum prison sentences and fines as a completed transaction.
What do you think Judge? Do “We The People” have a case?
The most obvious case for impeachment lies in violating the Constitution itself. Which Trump, and most recent Presidents, have regularly done.
The Constitution is the highest law in the land. The Constitution lists as its reasons for impeachment “high crimes and misdemeanors”. What is a higher crime than violating the highest law in the land? The Constitution gave Congress impeachment as a tool to restrain an out of control President who is abusing his power by far exceeding the limits given by the Constitution. In such a case, we do not need to search for a reason to impeach. That is always a high crime liable to impeachment.
Sadly, what we need is a new Congress. One that represents the people, and not the oligarchs. And with only about 20 to 40 seats being ‘competitive’ in The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, that is not likely to occur this year.
Tommy,
Section 4 states: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
In my estimation the charge of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors” is too vague. It opens the door to arguments. It is of critical importance that our Congress charge Donald Trump with “Bribery” because that is a crime specifically denoted in Article 2, Section 4. It is also the crime that millions of Americans have witnessed him publicly commit on nationally broadcast TV.
In addition, if it were possible and legal, we (the people of each state) should also impeach every congressperson who fails to uphold the US Constitution on this matter as well. If that is not likely…then please, for the sake of our country, do note cast your vote for any congressperson who would refrain from the immediate impeachment and the conviction of President Trump.
And Many thanks to Consortiumnews.com for your unceasing coverage of some of the most important issues of our time – inside and far beyond our shores! Bringing Truth, Justice, Peace strengthens our resolve! ??????
Dear Judge Napolitano! You are a blessing to our nation & you make me proud & thankful for speaking on our behalf to All citizens living in America, regardless of color, creed, national origin, or language!! In these dark days, shining your bright light on one man’s distorted actions helps us find our path more quickly!
The courts, the congress, and the administration are all controlled by the billionaire class. Our government cannot do anything without their blessing. Trump is not coming up with these plans of action, his billionaire handlers are. And who controls to corporate-owed-news? The billionaires, who control all of the narrative management. So blaming this on Trump is missing the major point. Until you get the billionaires under control, nothing will change.
He is one, however.
That was the fatal flaw in this Constitution with many flaws. That it left open the possibility that a powerful force outside the government could take control of the Presidency, both Houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. When that occurs, there is no force in this Constitution to prevent tyranny.
The basic problem is that capitalism and democracy do not mix. The notion of a democracy with each citizen have one equal vote and an equal voice in society is the opposite to capitalism. Capitalism is based on heirarchies, not freedom. A society built upon the principle that says that money is everything and that you must have money not to starve or freeze to death, can never have a functioning democracy where all voices are equal and where the opinions of everyone are taken into account. Capitalism and democracy are opposites, and do not mix.\
Overall, the writers of this Constitution were afraid of democracy. They tried to limit democracy, and to keep the people out of the government. The Electoral College is one of many examples. In doing so, they came down firmly on the side of capitalism by working so hard to limit its opposition, a functioning democracy.
The Democrats cannot save Congress. In the 2026 elections they have nominated a staggering 67 congressional candidates with a national security background, more than double the number who ran in any of the last four elections. Only Congress can authorize war. But if it is filled with members with a military background and a mindset of offensive US foreign policy then wars run for the interest of the wealthy elite will follow.
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The Democrats publicly accept multiple, provably false narratives that facilitate war. These include:
1. Russia as an aggressor nation against Ukraine and Europe and needs to be destroyed.
2. The Zelensky government is not massively corrupt and criminal and it should receive US support.
3. Iran is a criminal government and it, and its people, need to be destroyed.
4. Israel has not committed genocide and war crimes in Gaza.
With these appalling views the Democrats cannot save America or its people from global war. Trump is just the voice of total US governance failure.