by In response to recent actions by President Donald Trump’s administration, a resolution proposed by Boston City Councilor Benjamin Weber calls for a return to “constitutional principles.”
At
Wednesday’s council meeting
, Councilor Ed Flynn blocked the resolution to request more information.
The
July 4, 2025 resolution
“would follow up on other proclamations Boston and other cities had against King George III before the American Revolution,” said Weber.
“After speaking to constituents, I thought it would be worthwhile on July 4 for Boston, which played such a large role in launching the fight for independence from the British crown, to stand up for the principle of separation of powers which seems to have been completely abandoned in the second Trump administration,” Weber told Boston.com.
To Weber, Trump’s “unrestrained” behavior in his second term includes his invoking the Insurrection Act — which was last used by
Lyndon B. Johnson in response in response to Bloody Sunday in 1965
— for the LA protests in June.
On June 27,
after the U.S. bombed nuclear facilities in Iran, the Senate voted against a Democrat-led war powers resolution to block Trump from taking further action in Iran without congressional approval.
“The Constitution is designed to prevent power from falling into the hands of a single person, and while separation of powers appeared to be on life support, Republicans in Congress and the Supreme Court have been falling over themselves to see who could pull the plug for President Trump,” Weber said.
On July 4, Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill” passed, cutting Medicare funding and increasing funding for ICE, among
many other controversial provisions
.
Beyond national legislation, the resolution states, “President Trump and his appointees have publicly stated and shown that they are targeting Boston’s residents through aggressive immigration enforcement under the false pretense that the City is unsafe due to the mere presence of immigrants.”
Trump is also targeting the Boston area by revoking protections for the LGBTQ+ community, cutting veteran benefits, and via the ongoing dispute with Harvard University, the resolution states.
The non-binding resolution “urges the Massachusetts Congressional delegation to push their Congressional colleagues to exercise their legislative authority to enforce the Constitution, to work with the Judicial Branch to restore the separation of powers, to ensure that illegal or unconstitutional acts, including acts of corruption, are overturned, and to demonstrate in all actions that the United States of America has no king.”
Council opinions on the resolution
Boston’s colonial history is another reason that this resolution is important, argued Weber and the resolution’s co-sponsors, councilors Enrique Pepén and Brian Worrell.
If this resolution passes, Boston will join
Philadelphia
as the second major and founding American city to condemn Trump’s actions with a resolution.
“While our federal government continues to stray away from the founding principles of our country, we here in Boston are not going to so willingly stray from those principles,” said Pepén.
Worrell said, “If we want to keep leading in medicine, in biotech, in education, in democracy itself, we have to be just as committed to protecting our values as we are to our progress.”
The resolution states, “The people of Boston have shown repeatedly through protests and rallies large and small, in the City’s center, in neighborhoods, in elderly communities, and elsewhere, that we expect democracy, respect the Constitution, and are willing to stand up for both.”
Councilor Pepén and City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune noted upcoming
Good Trouble
protests throughout Boston and across the nation on July 17 in celebration and commemoration of civil rights leader and former congressman John Lewis.
“Boston should always be a place where people know that their rights will be respected and that the government will be accountable,” said Worrell.
After Councilor Flynn requested more information on the resolution, Weber responded, “We’ve seen U.S. military patrolling our streets. We’ve seen people picked up without any due process … We’ve seen cutting of all kinds of food stamps and other benefits here. I think we’ve seen enough.”
Flynn then officially objected, triggering the movement of the resolution to the Committee of Social Justice, Immigrant Rights and Racial Equity. All three sponsors of the resolution are on the committee: Weber as chair, Pepén as vice chair and Worrell as a member.
In a statement
to the Boston Herald
, Flynn noted that, “with a light schedule, the City Council is able to have a formal hearing on this matter,” adding, “As someone who served in the U.S. Navy for over 20 years, I want to understand exactly what impact this resolution would have on our active duty members and veterans as well.”
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