There’s a small point I want to make about this issue of state power as a bulwark about corrupt efforts to overthrow the constitutional order. It’s a small point and it’s perhaps implicit in the discussion to this point. But it’s important so I want to draw it out a bit.
As separate, though subordinate sovereignties the states have a vast pool of sovereign authority, much more than a lot of state officers themselves appear to realize. A lot of that is affirmative authority and authority so deeply embedded in explicit constitutional mandates that it is difficult for even a corrupt judiciary to take from them. But it’s not only affirmative power. It’s also the power to resist and not be pinned down. That well of sovereign power creates a lot of ability to bob and weave, evade and parry against a corrupt assault from a renegade executive.
