It feels passé to say that we’re in the middle of a rule of law crisis. That’s like saying the Louisiana v. Callais decision was a slight suffrage setback. Tasteful understatement has its place, but at what point are you just choosing to play nice over accurately describing the world around you? The rule of law is at a nadir — we’re seeing shit so dire that it makes the Magna Carta look like a pipe dream. Not only does the United States has a “king” whose mental capabilities have him on his 4th annual please-don’t-be-too-demented mental check-in (worse numbers than there being 17 members in the T14), that same guy has broad criminal immunity and just excused himself from the IRS investigating his finances. And for salt in the wound, the main responses toward accusations that the presidency has become a monarchy have been tongue-in-cheek White House propaganda and some guy who makes Yale Law look really bad’s whataboutism:
Mind you, this is just the tip of the ICEberg. Or NICEberg rather. Trump thinks that N-wording ICE will make people more amenable to the secret police, but doing so would require Congressional approval. That means nothing can stop him from doing it — it isn’t like he actually needed their approval to go to war with Iran.
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But hey, there might be a silver lining. While I still think that the doubleplusungooding that follows is an understatement, it’s a step in the right direction of no longer being able to pretend how bad the state of the rule of law is now. Dartmouth has coverage:
The rule of law in the United States has deteriorated to its lowest level in at least a decade, according to the first joint survey of federal judges, elite lawyers, and law professors by Bright Line Watch and UCLA School of Law’s Safeguarding Democracy Project.
The survey reports that under President Donald Trump’s second term, legal experts perceive a significant erosion of the rule of law, including politicized law enforcement, a dysfunctional separation of powers, and overreach by the executive branch, based on data from Feb. 19 to March 6.
In good faith, is it worth pointing out that the legal experts’ opinions may shift toward a more dire assessment of the rule of law if they were asked to opine today. The March 6th cut-off misses little developments like Trump’s effective “I bought you” comments toward Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch. Supreme Court legitimacy is one of those frail bulwarks that supports the rule of law, after all. At the time of the study, most of the legal experts didn’t think that there would be any change to the rule of law by 2027 and only a modest improvement by 2032. Good to see that there’s still optimism among the intelligentsia! My money is on the Top Secret Military Ballroom being built and in use by 2032 and considering that they’re already protecting against drone strikes on the White House now, who knows what’s on the pipeline a couple of years:
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Some other highlights from the report: 80% of the experts think that the Supreme Court is using the shadow docket incorrectly, 80% think that federal officials often fail to comply with court orders, and about half of the judges surveyed are concerned about being harassed if they rule against the government.
Rough time for the rule of law.
Legal Experts Say Rule of Law Has Hit a 10-Year Low [Dartmouth]
Earlier: Trump To Gorsuch And Barrett: I Made You, I Can Break You
Over 50 Bar Organizations Stand Up For The Rule Of Law
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn’t hurt either. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by Tweet/Bluesky at @WritesForRent.