Constitutional Crises Then and Now

Are we in a constitutional crisis? It’s a question that has largely defined the early months of Trump’s second presidency for everyone desperately trying to make sense of the upending of norms taking place around them. Looking back at recent American history, the only other time we seriously asked this question was in the wake of the 2000 election. Though there was a spike in discussions of constitutional crises in the media in 2000 as in 2025, these moments are vastly different in nature.

What have been the fundamental threats identified during each period? Analyzing media coverage provides unique insight into this question. By gathering every article from January 1, 1980 to May 1, 2025 that mentions an American “constitutional crisis” or “constitutional crises” across four major news outlets (The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today), I investigate coverage of these two distinct episodes – the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case and the early months of Trump’s second term – how they differ, and what this might tell us about the political moment we find ourselves in now.

Though these two eras prompted the most media mentions of “constitutional crisis” since the 1980s, it’s worth acknowledging some important differences. The controversy of Bush v. Gore can be traced to one root cause: the election of 2000, which, once resolved by the Court, was quickly accepted.

Despite the initial fears of a constitutional crisis, many of those quoted in media coverage downplayed the significance of the contested election or emphasized the peaceful transition of power that ultimately occured. For example, Rev. Jesse Jackson asserted that “what was happening in Palm Beach County was not a constitutional crisis, but a simple matter of making sure that every vote counted,” and Secretary of State Warren Christopher, one of Gore’s top advisors, declared that “we’re not on the edge of a constitutional crisis.” Even Vice President Gore himself claimed that “No matter what the outcome, America will make the transition to a new administration with dignity, with full respect for the freely expressed will of the people, and with pride in the democracy we are privileged to share.” Evidently, even those on the losing side of the battle were reluctant to declare there was any crisis in the first place.

Even in the articles that did describe 2000 as a constitutional crisis, the threat was portrayed as resolvable. The Republican National Committee Chief of Staff at the time, Tom Cole, was quoted saying that if the Democrats didn’t accept the vote count, “we’ll find ourselves in a constitutional crisis, and then we’re off to the courts,” suggesting there was trust in the courts to handle the matter, and reflecting the commonly held attitude at the time that this “crisis” would – at least eventually – be resolved once and for all.

The constitutional crisis of 2025 is far more nebulous, however, and the news coverage is of a wholly different nature. There is not necessarily one event pinpointed as the crisis, for instance. Trump’s executive order revoking birthright citizenship? His executive order attempting to upend state autonomy with respect to running elections? His threats to impeach federal judges who disagree with him? In 2000, one aspect of constitutional democracy was in crisis, but what we’re seeing in 2025 seems more like a full and complete assault on many of the constitution’s core guarantees.

Only 18 days into Trump’s second term, legal scholars described our present political moment as a constitutional crisis unlike anything they’ve seen before. Until this point, one scholar stated, they had never actually witnessed a president who believed the constitution was “essentially meaningless.” “The distinctive feature of the current situation,” another scholar said, “is its chaotic flood of activity that collectively amounts to a radically new conception of presidential power.”

This final quote points to a particularly potent theme that has dominated early news coverage of Trump’s second term: a radical take on executive power, trending in an authoritarian direction. This fear is unique to 2025, perhaps more threatening to the principles of American democracy than concerns that were raised during Bush v. Gore. To track this theme of authoritarianism, I tagged every article for mentions of dictator/dictatorship or authoritarian/authoritarianism.

In my analysis, I found that themes of authoritarianism came up in around 21% of the articles with mentions of a “constitutional crisis” in 2025. Only one article in the late 2000/early 2001 era contained these words, however, and it was unrelated to the American constitutional crisis. It’s also worth noting that the number of “constitutional crisis” articles mentioning these themes in 2025 is already, as of May, higher than any single year of Trump’s first presidency, from 2017-2021.

To give a sense of what such “authoritarian” stories touch on, a long article by New York Times Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak quoted a scholar who claimed that Trump had been asserting dictatorial power and violating due process, and the phrase “constitutional crisis” did not suffice to capture the gravity of the situation.

Authoritarianism is not the only theme visible in news coverage – there are many overlapping crises that contribute to the political chaos of 2025. To name a few, unlawful deportations, judicial defiance, and the termination of major federal agencies are some of the major issues that have dominated recent news coverage that mentions “constitutional crisis”.

In a March 2025 letter to the editor, one New York Times reader worried that we were no longer in a constitutional crisis, but at the funeral. This sentiment has certainly been echoed by the media, which has clearly conveyed that we are in a true existential crisis, and one without parallel in the last 45 years.

—Abby Ward

Methodological note: I examined all 2,838 articles containing “constitutional crisis” or “constitutional crises”, published between January 1, 1980 and May 1, 2025 in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. To focus on domestic constitutional crises exclusively, I used Geocoding techniques to filter out articles on domestic constitutional crises in foreign countries. For additional information regarding our methods, see here. Photo Credit: Sam Whitney/New York Times.