The odds are, in the coming months, the Supreme Court will issue a ruling that limits Donald Trump’s unilateral assertions of power. Perhaps the court will strike down the president’s radical and unprecedented imposition of tariffs without congressional involvement or his denial of birthright citizenship to individuals born in the U.S.

Although it is impossible to know how such a situation will play out, a certain fatalism is now germinating. Political observers and even unnamed administration officials wonder in private what will happen if Trump simply defies the court, asserting his executive power and thumbing his nose at the rule of law and the constitutional system.

I believe that such a decision to ignore the Supreme Court would be more difficult and costly to Trump than many assume.

A court decision that delivers a clear, unified rebuke to the president by full court or 7-2 supermajority would marshal the authority of the U.S. Constitution. Another defiant president crumbled in 1974 when a unanimous decision........

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