"subvert authority" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You could use this phrase to express a sentiment of acting against or undermining those in a position of authority. For example, you could say, "The protesters were trying to subvert the authority of the government in order to pass their message of reform."
The Cuban government has complained for years about "democracy programs" it says subvert its authority and sovereignty.
Although the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the Clean Air Act gives the E.P.A. not just the right but the obligation to regulate greenhouse gases, the Senate tried to subvert that authority once.
But the episode appeared to be the most dramatic instance in which the friction between Mr. Ahmadinejad and conservatives in the government emerged in the open; the president's conservative critics have increasingly challenged him over what they regard as a "deviant current" of presidential advisers who want to subvert the authority of the Islamic clergy.
The call for reform, they fear, is really a Trojan horse to subvert the authority of the Church.
I am sure more devious minds can think up other measures to put roadblocks in the way of the abhorrent effort to subvert congressional authority.
Cockrel was also wary of granting the corporation counsel, who is appointed, the power to subvert the authority of elected government officials.
He went on to cite a laundry list of challenges with which he and his personnel must contend: ever-expanding illicit networks, terrorist safe havens, attempts to subvert government authority, a steady stream of new recruits and resources.
However, in a number of areas, he established tributary relations with chieftains, thus not wholly subverting their authority.
The party describes anti-graft investigators as breaking "factions" that have subverted central authority by blocking its reforms.
