"Let's Kill All the Lawyers I Don't Like"
Plus: The Week in Review
“Across the nation, judges are facing increased threats of not only physical violence, but also professional retaliation just for doing our job. And the attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity.” — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
“In a cringe-worthy twist on the theatrical phrase ‘Let’s kill all the lawyers,’” the judge wrote, [Trump’s] order was more specifically, “‘Let’s kill the lawyers I don’t like,’ sending the clear message: Lawyers must stick to the party line, or else.” — Judge Beryl Howell, ruling that the order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie was unconstitutional.
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Some brief thoughts on two remarkable developments yesterday:
In her remarks to a conference of jurists, Justice Ketanji Jackson Brown did not mention Doanld Trump by name, but the NYT notes, “her remarks came as Mr. Trump and his allies have repeatedly targeted judges who have blocked key pieces of his agenda, even calling for judges who have ruled against him to be impeached.”
Threats of physical violence against judges have also been on the rise, with judges facing bomb threats and a rash of delivery of anonymously dispatched pizzas, a prank apparently designed to send a message that their home addresses can be found.
Justice Jackson emphasized the stakes: “A society in which judges are routinely made to fear for their own safety or their own livelihood due to their decisions is one that has substantially departed from the norms of behavior that govern a democratic system.”
“Attacks on judicial independence is how countries that are not free, not fair, and not rule of law oriented, operate.”
Exactly right.
But this speech should not have had to come from the Supreme Court’s most junior member. To be fair, Chief Justice Robert did rebuke Trump’s threats in March, when he described them as “not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
But Jackson’s much stronger warning should have come from her other senior colleagues. It should have come from the full Court. It should have come from the whole federal judiciary. And it should have been amplified by the nation’s legal community.
Which brings me to my final point.
Justice Jackson’s warning about the attack on the rule of law shines a harsh spotlight on the cravenness of the Vichy Law Firms who chose this moment to bow and scrape before the orange throne.
The fattest of fat-cat litigators ran away from a fight they would have won easily.
On Friday, Judge Beryl Howell ruled that Trump’s vindictive attacks on one of the targeted firms, Perkins Coie was blatantly unconstitutional. “The ruling was the first time a court had stepped in to permanently bar Mr. Trump from trying to punish a law firm he opposes politically,” notes the NYT. But it will not be the last. This was just the first of four similar suits against Trump’s orders against the firms.
“No American president has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue,” [Judge Howell] wrote, adding, “In purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: ‘The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.’”
Meanwhile, the legal cowards will get their reward. But it will not be the admiration of history.
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Happy Saturday.
I know that many of you feel overwhelmed by all of the Substack newsletters. There are a lot of claims on your time and your resources. And I get it.
So, one of things that I’ve started to do here is cross-post some of the best work out there. Subscribers have received posts from Anne Applebaum, Francis Fukuyama, Garry Kasparov, Harry Litman, Andrew Weissman, Walter Olson, Adam Kinzinger, Julian Zelizer, and others.
More than 90 percent of you read everything we write and post for free — and I want to keep it that way, because you really can’t defend democracy from behind a paywall.
But I want you to know that I am deeply grateful for those of you who have become paid subscribers, because you make it possible for me to stay on this hamster wheel of crazy. I won’t promise that you won’t disagree with me from time to time, but I will promise you straight, sober, sane, (and snarky) commentary. And I hope to earn your support and convince others that what we do here has some value.
ICYMI: A week of commentary
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
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This week, we also cross-posted:
Andrew Weissmann: The Arrest Of A Milwaukee Judge: A Troubling Assault On The Judiciary
Nick Cohen: Europe can’t keep crawling to Trump’s USA
Harry Litman: The Feds’ Overreach in Judge Dugan Case
Francis Fukuyama: 100 Days of Ressentiment
Saturday dog
I was out of town briefly this week. The boys were waiting for me to come home.
Unrelated but notable: Australia has gone the way of Canada in voting against the conservative parties that had lined up with Trump. At least Trumpster has brought someone together. Aussies and Canucks are smarter than we are. O' Canada and Advance Australia Fair!
“There is no kind of government more deformed than that in which the wealthiest are regarded as the noblest.” - Cicero