Our Court System Isn’t Perfect, but Trump’s Disrespect For It Is Not Helping

Respect for the rule of law isn’t generally a partisan issue. Appreciation for career civil servants usually doesn’t come only with an R or a D. And yet, I know, I’m likely to lose a lot of followers of this blog for saying some fairly simple things that, two months ago, would not have been controversial to say:

1. We shouldn’t fire career prosecutors and law enforcement for political reasons, or force them to use (or refrain from using) their powers for political purposes.
2. Everyone should obey court orders and refrain from disrespecting judges by calling them “corrupt” or “frauds” just because we don’t like a decision they’ve made.
3. No one should be denied their rights without due process.

I assume most of us agree with these three points in theory. Yet, far too many of my neighbors will refuse to call out Trump for failing to uphold these basic tenets. Why is this? Why can’t more people say, “I support a lot of Trump’s agenda, and generally support the President, but I wish he’d do a few things differently?” Nobody’s perfect, right? Frankly, I’ve never supported 100% of any politician’s actions, or even 90% of them. But some refuse any criticism of the President. They should reconsider.

As to the first of these points, consider the scandal behind the criminal trial of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The man knowingly took money from foreign agents through straw donors, and that money resulted in his receipt of matching public funds he wasn’t entitled to. In other words, he not only cheated during the election by taking illegal money, but also literally stole from the taxpayer. There’s little question that he is guilty of this. But because he agreed to change NYC’s immigration policies, the Trump Administration ordered prosecutors to dismiss the corruption case against him. Career prosecutors were outraged that a person they knew was guilty of a crime was being let off for political favors, and at least 7 of them resigned rather than follow the order to file a motion to dismiss. The Deputy Attorney General then publicly excoriated the most senior of them for not following his orders, even though dismissing a case for political gain quite possibly would violate their oath of office. We lost at least 7 good attorneys are are going to let a criminal walk free. Can we agree this is a bad thing? Similar nonsense happened in law enforcement; for example, FBI officials who were tasked with investigating (not volunteered to, but told it is their job to do so) the January 6th riots were fired. These were good people just doing their job. Surely you don’t support this, right?

As to the second, I challenge you to find a response from the White House to a judge that paused a Trump order that does not call the judge “corrupt” or “a radical leftist” or “part of the deep state” or “should be impeached” or similar such language. In normal times, an administration says, “We respectfully disagree with the holding of the court and will consider an appeal.” It is not normal to attack judges like this. And, suffice to say, this administration has produced no evidence that any of these judges — many of whom have been serving for decades — is in any way “corrupt.” This breeds contempt for duly commissioned judges and our justice system as a whole. Like Trump or not, you must admit that he is pushing the boundaries of his constitutional authority, and it should be of no surprise that sometimes he is told by the courts, “No, that’s too far.” That is the system of checks-and-balances we have, and if ultimately Trump can’t even get a U.S. Supreme Court with a 6-3 conservative majority to reverse these judges, it should be crystal clear that it is not the judges, but the President, who is wrong.

As to the third, what we are doing in regards to illegal immigrants is wrong. Not the fact that we’re deporting them: I am sure that most of those expelled by Trump last weekend based on their alleged association with Tren de Aragua were dangerous people who should have been thrown out. But why are we now trying to skip the courts? Do you really want a President to be able to simply say, “This person is a gang member!” and then have the authority to fly them to a foreign prison that is basically a concentration camp? It turns out that at least one of them was probably falsely accused. If you take comfort in the fact that it was only brown people being mistreated, consider that we recently held a Canadian in a squalid jail for a few weeks just because she didn’t have the right paperwork with her when she got to the border. She was forced to lay on freezing cement floors, strip and pee in a cup for a nurse for a pregnancy test, and drink water from a tap attached to a toilet.

The point here is that Trump is not God, nor is he a dictator. He is subject to court orders just like you and me, unless and until they are overturned by a higher court (which, again, is packed with conservative judges, so what is the problem?). If we let Trump dismantle our justice system by firing prosecutors and law enforcement, demeaning and ignoring judges, and acting himself as judge, jury, and executioner, the result will be the destruction of our constitutional system and ample suffering — and in case it matters to you, it will not only be brown people who will suffer. It is my job as an attorney — an officer of the court sworn to uphold the constitution — to speak out when things are wrong in our justice system. And I’m telling you: things are wrong.