President Donald Trump unleashed a flurry of executive orders when he first took office, and while it was broadly anticipated that at least some of those orders would eventually end up at the U.S. Supreme Court, few would have predicted that one of those orders seems to directly challenge the Supreme Court itself.

That appears to be the case with Trump's order on restoring the federal death penalty, as he directed his attorney general to "seek the overruling of Supreme Court precedents" that limit the use of capital punishment, according to MSNBC.

Trump's order did not specifically cite the precedents he was referencing, but the outlet noted that the high court has previously ruled out execution as a constitutionally acceptable punishment for juveniles, the mentally disabled, and for violent crimes other than homicide.

Trump's death penalty order

On President Trump's first day in office, he signed an executive order titled "Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety" that, as the name implies, restored the use of the "essential tool" of capital punishment at the federal level to deter and punish, particularly "heinous crimes" and "lethal violence" by ending a moratorium on federal executions imposed by former President Joe Biden in 2021.

The order plainly stated: "It is the policy of the United States to ensure that the laws that authorize capital punishment are respected and faithfully implemented, and to counteract the politicians and judges who subvert the law by obstructing and preventing the execution of capital sentences."

To that end, Trump instructed his attorney general to pursue the death penalty in all capital cases involving the murder of a law enforcement officer or murders committed by illegal immigrants, to encourage states to pursue death sentences where applicable, and to ensure states had everything necessary to carry out such executions.

Taking on Supreme Court precedents

What caught the attention of the leftist legal bloggers at MSNBC, however, was the section of Trump's order that seemingly sets it on a crash course with the Supreme Court that will quite possibly have to eventually rule on the constitutionality of the executive action.

Section 5 of the order states: "The Attorney General shall take all appropriate action to seek the overruling of Supreme Court precedents that limit the authority of State and Federal governments to impose capital punishment."

To be sure, most of the justices who ruled against the use of the death penalty in the above-linked precedents are no longer on the court, and the current court with its 6-3 conservative-leaning majority has generally shown disfavor toward appeals from death row inmates.

That said, the high court can be hard to read at times, making it difficult to predict how the justices will rule on a given case, and some of the court-imposed limitations -- such as for juveniles and the mentally disabled -- seem rather unlikely to be overturned.

Trump called out Biden for commuting federal death sentences

Meanwhile, President Trump's executive order on the death penalty also harshly but necessarily called out his predecessor, former President Biden, for his lame-duck commutations of death sentences for "37 of the 40 most vile and sadistic rapists, child molesters, and murderers on Federal death row: remorseless criminals who brutalized young children, strangled and drowned their victims, and hunted strangers for sport."

Indeed, the Associated Press reported in December that Biden, in addition to halting all federal executions while he was in office, commuted the death sentences of all but three of the federal death row inmates, relegating them instead to life without parole, and specifically referenced his incoming successor in doing so, as Biden said, "In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted."

In response to Biden's move, Trump's order states: "The Attorney General shall evaluate the places of imprisonment and conditions of confinement for each of the 37 murderers whose Federal death sentences were commuted by President Biden, and the Attorney General shall take all lawful and appropriate action to ensure that these offenders are imprisoned in conditions consistent with the monstrosity of their crimes and the threats they pose."

Trump's order added, "The Attorney General shall further evaluate whether these offenders can be charged with State capital crimes and shall recommend appropriate action to state and local authorities."