We seem to be in the middle of 16 constitutional crises at once. President Donald Trump and his allies are trying to kill an entire provision of the Constitution, cut Congress out of the federal budgeting process, and cut off agencies’ control of their computer systems.

Let’s imagine that all six of the Supreme Court’s Republican justices wake up tomorrow and decide that their many, previous decisions enabling Trump were wrong, and each pledge to do everything in their power to rein in the seemingly out-of-control executive that they helped create.

Even in this world, where the federal courts could be counted on to aggressively enforce the Constitution and any statutes that are intended to constrain Trump, the United States would still face a constitutional crisis.

The reason why is fairly basic: Courts are inherently reactive institutions. They do not preemptively tell the government how to operate, and they aren’t even allowed to advise the government on whether its planned actions are lawful. Rather, before a federal court can do anything at all, it must wait for the government to do something illegal, wait for a plaintiff to come along who is injured in some way by that illegal action, and then, if conditions are right, the court can intervene.

By the time that happens, permanent damage may already be done. To understand why, consider this example.

The Trump administration plans to essentially shutter the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Shutting down USAID is almost certainly illegal — the agency is funded by Congress, and the president cannot lawfully cut off congressional appropriations (including money set aside to run USAID) without legislative approval. Because of these facts, there’s also a lawsuit, known as American Foreign Service Association v. Trump, seeking to block these efforts to shut down USAID. And that lawsuit may ultimately succeed — the most recent development in that suit is a temporary court order blocking the Trump administration’s attempt to put USAID employees on leave.

By the time this lawsuit fully plays out, however, many of USAID’s employees may have already found new jobs. If the Supreme Court ultimately rules that the agency must continue to function, that decision could take months or years. And, by that point, the agency may have experienced such severe brain drain that it will be a shadow of its former self. (And that’s all assuming that Trump even complies with a court order reopening the agency.)

The Trump administration, in other words, will always be the first mover in a conflict between it and the courts. The federal judiciary can often stop........

© Vox