Most of the current rhetoric about an apparent "constitutional crisis" is woefully misinformed. For starters, President Trump cannot possibly have ignored any court order because no court order runs against him. Even if Trump has been a named defendant, any injunctions would apply to members of his administration, not the apex official. Moreover, Trump's Justice Department has dutifully appealed every adverse ruling (as best as I can tell). I've seen no evidence that Trump, or anyone in his administration, has given an order to ignore a court ruling. Some judges ordered immediate compliance, but that sort of demand is simply not realistic. The federal government cannot change direction so quickly in the face of many litigation demands. We saw these dynamics during the travel ban litigation. Attorney General Sessions described the nationwide injunction as an order to turn a battleship around 180 degrees immediately. It cannot be done.
But let's assume, at least for a moments sake, a hypothetical. A district court issues a preliminary injunction against the executive branch. The government asks for a stay, and the district court declines to grant a stay. The government then promptly asks the circuit court for an administrative stay, which is granted the following day. For the twenty-four hour period between the injunction and the stay, the government was out of compliance with the injunction. Is this the sort of "constitutional crisis" that so many people are worried about? Should not the government have at least a little wiggle room, or grace, while seeking review from a higher court?
This is not a hypothetical. It is real. Consider the procedural posture of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952). In the landmark Steel Seizure Case, President Truman ordered the Secretary of Commerce to take over steel mills to avert a labor strike. As all know, the Supreme Court declared this seizure to be unconstitutional. But the path from the District Court to the Supreme Court is not well understood. Here is how the Justice Black's majority opinion describes the posture:
