The Supreme Court majority built by Donald Trump could uphold efforts to expand presidential authority based on the legal principle of unitary executive theory.

Given Republican control of Congress, the confirmation of Trump ultra-loyalist Pamela Bondi as his attorney general and the president’s installation of members of his personal legal team at the top of the Justice Department, the independent court system may be the last bulwark against his instinct to wield expansive power.

President Donald Trump has faced several setbacks from federal courts, which have blocked or paused some of his most controversial plans since taking office.

"The government has cloaked what is effectively a constitutional amendment under the guise of an executive order," the judge said.

A federal judge who already questioned the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order is set to hear arguments over a longer-term pause of the directive.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued the injunction at a hearing on a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups arguing that Trump’s order is unconstitutional.

A federal judge in Seattle on Thursday accused Donald Trump of ignoring the rule of law for political and personal gain as he declared an executive order that the Republican president signed seeking to curtail birthright citizenship to be unconstitutional.

A federal judge in Boston will consider a request from 18 states to block President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the U.S. illegal

A second federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship, accusing the Trump administration of ignoring the Constitution for political gain. CNN’s Paula Reid reports.