By Mose Schneider @Adobe Stock
What the Rule of Law Means
The “Rule of Law” is about restraint, predictability, and equal treatment, each meant to ensure that no single branch of government has too much power and that other branches “constrain the government and its personnel,” writes Christopher Roach in American Greatness.
Distorting the Rule of Law – A Gross Political Exercise
Rule of law is not merely a set of rules. It is a culture.
Over many decades, that culture has broken down and become distorted due to the malevolent influence of legal realism, which has been amplified by the extreme partisanship of the law schools and the managerial class.
Collectively, … the courts, the media, the military, and Congress, along with state and federal prosecutors, have deviated from its normal course to deal with the allegedly unprecedented threat from Donald Trump.
A Dark Day for the Country
That there was a trial, along with a verdict, does not vindication of the rule of law. Dictatorships, notes Mr. Roach, also have laws, elections, trials.
(Dictatorships) are infamous for their “show trials,” where the trial process becomes an exercise in propaganda and mythmaking for the regime.
Dictatorships are known for this kind of affront. What is unusual is that it happened in the USA.
In other countries, when opposition politicians are prosecuted in unorthodox ways, we recognize it as a sign of lawlessness, authoritarianism, and political corruption. We sanction the participants and often refuse to recognize the corruptly installed leaders. Does the judgment change when it happens here?
Until now, various unwritten rules, the basic principles of discretion and restraint, and sensible fear of retaliation have limited partisan persecutions in our country. While politicians are sometimes prosecuted and convicted, normally it is for unmistakable and uncontroversial crimes, typically misuse of their office, taking bribes, and not some preconceived plan to “get them.”
Promising to “Take Down” Trump
The rule of law is not just a question of form but of substance, including the large admixture of discretion, judgment, and self-imposed restraint that previously characterized our institutions, particularly the criminal justice system. While no one should be above the law or treated as exempt from it, there should still be special considerations of necessity and social harm before the party in power goes after a rival.
Rigging the Game for President Joe Biden
This norm is particularly important to uphold in the middle of an election year because the potential for abuse is so high.
Christopher Roach, a double graduate of the University of Chicago, is an adjunct fellow of the Center for American Greatness and an attorney in private practice based in Florida.
