Law Schools

Donald Trump Pegs Law School Dean As Source Of Dingbat 'Pence Can Overturn Election' Theory

Not a great look for a law school to be handing out advice from the back of an 8kun message board.

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No single event triggered the assault on the Capitol last week, but one of the more significant signposts was the wide dissemination of the cockamamie theory that the vice president of the United States wields the hidden constitutional power to just ignore electoral college votes. It’s a measure of authority that, if it existed, one assumes John Adams would’ve liked to have known about. Alas, it does not exist.

So how did something this stupid get into the right-wing ether? Donald Trump promoted it of course. But how did Donald Trump become convinced of this nonsense…

As Kyle McEntee of Law School Transparency reminded us yesterday, Mark Martin is currently a law school dean, molding impressionable young lawyers at the Regent University School of Law. The school, founded by a guy who thinks hurricanes target gay rights and that earthquakes are the natural result of overthrowing slavery and whose most memorable legal alum was Monica Goodling — the relatively inexperienced lawyer who for some reason was a high-ranking DOJ official and plunged the W. administration into the U.S. Attorney firing scandal — enjoys outsized influence when it comes to this administration. Trump lawyer and charity tax status issue-spotter Jay Sekulow, who you may remember from some of the more bizarre Trump theories during the first impeachment, got a Ph.D. from Regent. It’s basically Hogwarts for questionable legal advice.

Which brings us to Martin, the former North Carolina Chief Justice, where the Times reporting doesn’t offer much depth on his involvement:

At one point, Mr. Trump told the vice president that he had spoken with Mark Martin, the former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, who he said had told him that Mr. Pence had that power. Mr. Pence had assured Mr. Trump that he did not. Mr. Trump made the vice president defend his rationale in a meeting with lawyers whom Rudolph W. Giuliani had helped line up.

It’s hard to believe someone with Martin’s experience would botch the law this badly, though the lesson of the last several months is that attorneys with reasonably solid reputations have been willing to delve into wildly off-kilter territory. Remember, law schools were honoring Lin Wood less than a year ago. Still, Trump is an unreliable narrator so take his impression of Martin’s words with a grain of salt, though even if this doesn’t accurately reflect Martin’s thinking, we’re well past the point where it should be incumbent upon any attorney speaking with the president to be cautious about how any legal advice can be twisted and misinterpreted. WRAL reached out to Martin but the dean did not respond to the inquiry.

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That’s probably a good move. Maybe don’t respond to the next Oval Office inquiry either.

House Moves To Force Trump Out, Vowing Impeachment If Pence Won’t Act [New York Times]
Did Trump consult a former NC chief justice ahead of Capitol attack? [WRAL]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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