If Nick LaLota is not willing to speak up for Congress, he should look for another job. So should almost all of the members of the Republican House and Senate, who have hovered ineffectually aside as the Trump White House, abetted by a conservative-majority Supreme Court, has time and again violated the Constitution, giving the president alone sole authority over what should be balanced government. By any definition, this looks a lot like dictatorship, and Mr. LaLota and the others must stand up against it.
The constitutional aberrations have come fast and furious since the earliest days of the Trump administration. Whether one is conservative, liberal, or somewhere in between, the White House’s unilateral disbanding of agencies and programs created by Congress should be deeply troubling. Regardless of his position on any particular issue, Mr. LaLota should have known, from at least middle school social studies classes, that United States government consists of three equal branches.
In a decision this week, the United States Supreme Court gave a go-ahead to the Trump administration to dissolve the Department of Education, a position clearly in violation of the Constitution’s provisions on the legislature’s power. The Education Department would seem an unlikely target except that some conservatives have long sought to weaken or eliminate it. Since the department was established in 1979, the right has spoken out against its role in enforcing civil rights law designed to prevent race or sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools. In this context, turning educational matters entirely over to states and school boards could in some places allow the resurgence of school segregation. In addition, conservatives want to expand school choice, which would allow students and families to use public money for religious alternatives to public schools.
Mr. LaLota, who voted in favor of President Trump’s deficit-busting Big Beautiful Bill, can hardly claim he is being fiscally responsible. The dislike of the Education Department would not appear to be based on cost: Its $288 billion funding in 2024 was just 2 percent of the federal budget. Regardless, it is up to members of Congress to protect the institution itself. It is unfortunate that, so far, the holder of the New York District 1 seat has been silent.