These executive orders are scary. They are also, of course, blatantly unconstitutional.

If a case were to come before the Supreme Court which required it to judge the legitimacy, or lack thereof, of presidential authority to "claim" the various economic assets mentioned in EO 10995, for example, it would have to rule that there was no valid source for any such authority, and that the section of the Executive Order purporting to grant such authority was unconstitutional and thus null and void.

So, who has standing to bring such a case? In theory, anyone who owns stock in any of the enterprises mentioned ought to have standing, since even the possibility of such future "claim" or seizure would have an adverse impact on the present value of enterprise in question.

In practice, a single stockholder would be crushed by the costs involved, and by government retaliation if it seemed he had a chance of getting anywhere. So how about a class action? It would still take some big bucks to pursue such a case, and a good dose of courage, since who knows what actions might be taken against the organizer of such a case. But fighting for freedom is always risky business.

If a company board (or several, or lots of them) were to endorse such a suit, it would be so much the better. But it would, of course, be a risk for the company, so probably only smaller privately-held firms could be expected to participate. But there are a lot of them around.

So, are there any lawyers and/or factory owners around with the guts to pursue such a case?