Statement

American Democracy in the Balance

June 28, 2021

September 25, 2019

Photo Credit:
Evgenia Parajanian / Shutterstock.com

We are a group of American lawyers from many different walks of life. We are alarmed.

The institutions and norms of behavior that are essential to our way of life are being destroyed by the President of the United States. He is aided and abetted by members of Congress who look the other way.

We expect our president to be the president of all the people. Not someone who tries to destroy the lives of citizens who disagree with his policies, who calls for them to be locked up, tries to stop their travel abroad and brands them as traitors.

We expect our president to worry about foreign involvement in our elections, not to encourage their involvement.

We expect our president to welcome vital intelligence, not to disparage what American intelligence agencies are telling him about what is happening.

We expect our president to enforce the law and see to it that justice is done. Not to obstruct efforts to uncover the truth, vilify judges whose rulings he dislikes or seek to jail those with whom he disagrees.

We expect our president to fight violence and hatred and to heal the wounds that threaten to make a mockery of E Pluribus Unum. Not to fan flames that can make ashes of our nation’s edifice.

We expect our president to fight for our Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of the press and expression. Not to brand the media as the enemy of the people and the purveyors of fake news.

We expect our president to respect the Congress as a co-equal branch of government. Not to treat it as an enemy because it seeks to uncover the facts essential to the exercise of its responsibilities.

We expect our president to be the exemplar of a democratic, humane and inclusive society.  Not one who basks in the image of autocrats and dictators.

We expect our president to put aside personal financial gain in service to the nation.  Not one who uses the office to enrich himself and his family.

We expect our Congress to defend the balance of powers the founding fathers devised to guard against tyranny. Not to be little more than an enabler of presidential command.

Our alarm is based not on differences about policy. It is based on fundamental changes in the way our governing institutions are working. On the current path, our country will soon be unrecognizable.

As alarmed American lawyers, we again call upon our leaders to screw up their courage, to see the darkness into which we are now descending and to lead us down a different path.  We did so back in February of this year. We do so again because the downward drift continues.

Join us and over 800 of our colleagues in denouncing President Donald Trump’s assaults on democratic principles and the rule of law by signing onto our Open Letter to the President and Congress.

We pray in the words of Longfellow that “[i]n the hour of darkness and peril and need, [t]he people will waken and listen to hear’ the alarm bells ringing in our ears."

Stay Informed —

Be the first to know about LDAD news by following us on LinkedIn or signing up for our newsletter.

featured press