As the Trump administration deploys creative ways to keep parts of the government open without congressional approval, it runs the risk of colliding again with a 150-year-old legal wall: the Antideficiency Act.

Why it matters: The law bars spending without appropriations and underscores Congress' constitutional control of the purse. Every attempt to stretch the law fuels the broader rise of executive power, the defining trait of Trump's second term. • "The key thing about the Antideficiency Act, which has long been its strength but now it turns out to be its weakness, is that it has criminal penalties attached to it," David Super, professor of law at Georgetown Law, told Axios. • "The Justice Department is pursuing the president's agenda in political as well as legal terms, I think ev

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