What Is Unitary Executive Theory?

Understanding the ideology behind SCOTUS rulings, Project 2025 and the Trump regime's anti-democratic actions

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Last week, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that dealt another destructive blow to democracy.

On the surface, the case was about immigration and birthright citizenship—a Constitutional right enshrined in the 14th Amendment—but the Court didn’t actually rule on the law itself.

Instead, it ruled on power—specifically whether federal judges can issue nationwide or universal injunctions that block a president’s actions across the entire country.

According to this ruling, the answer is “No.”

The conservative majority concluded that universal injunctions—when a single judge halts a federal policy for everyone, not just the people who sued—”likely exceeds the equitable authority that Congress has given to federal courts.”

The highest court in the land just told the lower courts they can no longer act decisively to stop potentially unconstitutional executive actions from going into effect nationwide.

At best, they can only grant relief to the parties directly involved in the lawsuit. That leaves illegal or harmful policies in place for everyone else even while they’re being challenged in court.

This is not just about the specifics of one ruling. It’s about the ideology that brought the case to the Supreme Court in the first place.

The SCOTUS decision about birthright citizenship is an outworking of “unitary executive theory.” And we need to talk about it more.

Photo Credit: Jabin Botsford/Getty Images

What Is Unitary Executive Theory?

Unitary executive theory holds that the Constitution gives the president full control over the entire executive branch.

Under this view, federal agencies like the DOJ, EPA, or ICE should answer solely to the president—not to Congress, not to independent commissions, not even to the courts.

This theory isn’t new, but it has gained renewed traction in recent years, especially among those pushing the Project 2025 agenda—the right-wing blueprint for a second Trump term.

Project 2025 explicitly states:

“The next conservative president must make the unitary executive theory a reality.”
“Go to work on Day One to deconstruct the administrative state.”

Unitary executive theory is a rationale to strip agencies of independence, fire career civil servants, and sideline courts that check the president’s power.

This ideology is not about efficiency or good governance. It’s about concentrating power in one individual thereby removing the constraints that define a functioning democracy.

No one president should have all that power.

There’s a reason the mass movement to resist this regime is called “No Kings.”

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What the Court Just Wrought

The Supreme Court’s decision didn’t address Trump’s order denying birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants or visa holders.

Instead, it limited who can block it.

No more nationwide freezes from lower courts. No more urgent interventions that apply across the country.

That means:

• If the president issues a harmful or unconstitutional order, it remains in effect while court challenges slowly wind their way through the system.

• Individual plaintiffs may win relief, but the policy still applies to everyone else.

• The president can continue enforcing unlawful actions without broad judicial resistance.

This decision is a gift to any administration pursuing a unitary executive vision of unchecked power.

The Connection to Project 2025

Project 2025 wasn’t hiding its aims. It’s just that not enough people paid attention or took it seriously enough. And some heartily agreed with its aims.

This publicly available plan—written by dozens of right-wing policy leaders, coordinated by the Heritage Foundation—is already being implemented, piece by piece. And it’s only been five months.

The authors of Project 2025 told us not only what they wanted to do, but exactly how they were going to do it.

Under the rubric of unitary executive theory, they intended to:

1. Expand executive power.

2. Reduce the power of federal courts and agencies to say no.

Project 2025 is an ideological project—and unitary executive theory is the ideology driving it. The Court just gave that ideology legal cover.

This is How Democracy Dies

This is how democracies die. One ruling at a time.

Strip the courts of the power to stop executive action. Limit who can challenge harmful policies. Erode the ability of civil servants and independent agencies to do their work. Make the president the sole authority over vast systems of law enforcement, surveillance, and regulation.

Then put the onus on the public rather than courts or Congress to resist this overreach of executive authority.

We often focus on the what of authoritarianism: the policies, the chaos, the cruelty. But we must also understand the how.

The unitary executive theory is the intellectual scaffolding for a regime that no longer believes in balance of powers or public accountability.

We Need to Name It to Resist It

If we want to halt the march of unitary executive theory—we have to name it to resist it.

We must call it what it is. We must explain it to others. And we must reject it—loudly and persistently.

This ruling did not happen in isolation. It was part of a much broader project to reshape the nation’s legal and moral foundations.

They told us what they were going to do.

They published the playbook and too many played along.

But we know their game plan.

It’s long past time to name it and refuse to let them win it.

What’s one moment you realized power was shifting in ways that felt dangerous—but most people around you didn’t notice—or didn’t care? Share in the comments.

P.S. Catch the latest episode of The Convocation Unscripted!