The Rule of Law is on Trial, Not Just Donald Trump
In the case of the People of the State of New York v Donald J. Trump, the rule of law is on trial with him. Whether he is found guilty or not is less important than the preservation of that core principle of American justice. Every citizen has the responsibility to uphold it, regardless of their personal or political views. Sadly, the early signs are alarming.
The Constitution and the rule of law guarantee certain things for Donald Trump. Both his followers and opponents must remember and honor them. They are rights granted to every American. He is presumed innocent until proven guilty at trial. Unlike someone arrested in an autocratic state, he is entitled to competent counsel of his choosing and those lawyers, through pre-trial discovery, will have full access to the prosecution’s case. They will have opportunities to file legal briefs before any trial can be held in a process that, to protect his rights, will take many months. His lawyers will be allowed to mount a vigorous defense in front of a jury who must be unanimous to convict him on any criminal charge. For any charge unproven beyond a reasonable doubt, jurors must vote for acquittal. Should a jury become deadlocked, the presumption of his innocence remains. Even if convicted on any counts, he will have the right to appeal.
All this may infuriate those liberals who have already “found” Donald Trump guilty. But if they believe in the rule of law, they can’t wish the process didn’t make it so hard to convict him. If he is found not guilty, they need to respect that outcome. They must keep in mind that trials are decided by a jury not public opinion. Left-leaning pundits and politicians do America no good by stoking frustration with the administration of justice, demeaning a verdict they don’t like or inciting potentially violent protests.
For their part, conservatives must respect the rule of law in the same ways. Often campaigning as the party of law and order, they should want this case to reflect their adherence to law and order. Attacking the Grand Jury, the prosecutor and judge as being politically motivated may rouse the faithful but undermines trust in the judicial system. So too does threatening the prosecutor with Congressional oversight or the withholding of funds for his office.
A great burden for upholding the rule of law falls on Donald Trump. As a former president and now-presidential candidate, his demeanor carries great weight for tens of millions of Americans. We look to leaders to help us decide what to think, how to act and whether to trust American institutions. Donald Trump is failing in this leadership role. When he calls Alvin Bragg a ”criminal,” Justice Merchan “a Trump-hating judge with a Trump-hating wife and family” and says “Republicans in Congress should defund the DOJ and FBI” he weakens the rule of law on which his and every American’s liberty rests and which a president takes an oath to protect.
For the most part, Democratic politicians have been constrained in their public comments, allowing the legal process to proceed without their interference. That’s exactly what they should and must continue to do. So should the rest of us. Every American, of course, is entitled to an opinion and the free speech to share it, but we must be judicious in how we exercise that free speech right. Angry public words may be comforting and self-satisfying, but nasty words can have nasty consequences. We’ve witnessed this too much in recent years by both the political Left and Right. The rule of law struggles to survive when Americans weaken trust in the justice system and encourage or actually deliver physical threats or engage in physical violence.
The trial in Manhattan is not the only one involving the former president. His trial on the charge of battery and defamation in the case involving E. Jean Carroll will soon be underway. There may be others. The rule of law must be followed and protected in all of these as well as in cases he has brought and may bring against others.
All of us share the responsibility to preserve the rule of law. If leaders attack it, we are not bound to follow. The rule of law is more important than they are. When they depart the scene we will be left with not only the impact of their words and actions but of our own. It will be no defense to claim they were solely responsible for weakening the rule of law. As Eleanor Roosevelt put it “In a democracy, no one else does our thinking for us.”
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