Sadly but clearly, we are no longer a functioning democracy. Lower courts that are holding the line are meaningless when consistently overridden by a complicit Supreme Court, which is the Trump path to conquest. Bove, despite his demonstrated unfitness and fundamental vileness, with get at least 51 votes, move onto the appeals court, and await his SCOTUS appointment. Maybe Cannon will give him a run for his money, having proven her subservience.
As you note, "But many people still optimistically insist that the courts remain a check on this presidency. That’s fine, and I agree that for the most part, the lower federal courts are doing their job to duly apply the law to the government of Donald J. Trump. (The Supreme Court is another story.)
That doesn’t mean we can sit back and wait this one out, however, hoping that the courts and the midterms will just set everything straight. We all have to get involved somehow....
The DOJ whistleblower’s complaint is important because it is a window into the thinking of top DOJ leaders when it comes to their obligation to abide by the law and court orders. Lawyers are key to our system of justice. If DOJ lawyers aren’t invested in the rule of law, the rule of law cannot survive—even if judges try to do the right thing."
The agency, personal choice conscientious agency, which each of us is presumed to have within the context of our constitutional system of self-governance is the tool ready for use by us. This personal agency is what each of us has, innately, to respect and to cooperate with each other with.
The rule of law agreement, and specific not-to-be-messed-with explicit assertions, e.g., due process, equal inclusive application of law, ..., -- this agreement affords us the common and secure political space to consciously and decisively to act cooperatively for our common interests and against the common dangers posed by this Trump administration and its constellation of anti-democratic supporters.
The Constitution represents one compilation and formal representation of this political sense of self [or social self-understanding in the immediate political environment lived in]. The rapid and positive emergence of formal Amendments [of the Twelve originally proposed and debated, these are the first ten amending the Constitution] to this Constitution gives this perspective on democratic political identity in formal, explicit rule of law form.
This is formal assertion of personal agency, agency not to be abused by government in the course of governance.
We are living in a moment that makes painfully clear the necessity of using these political tools of self-governance in our deliberations with each other [mutual respect and mutual empowerment in our formal and informal political discussions and mutual support for each other in making sure the rule of law is both respected and practiced], in our public statements of expectation for constituting legislation and for administering the laws, in our support of lawful challenges to perceived abuse of governing authority and law.
We are living in a moment that, also, makes wonderfully clear the novel perspectives which each of us may bring to public discussion and private conversation about the necessity and the benefits of our framework of self-government. It goes without saying, but it is also very important to reiterate, that we also have a Constitution that begs us to reform it by amendment, to reform our political procedural environment and tools to better the justice and other benefits of our constitutional rule of law society.
Finally, as historian Prof Stephen Kotkin, reminds us, we benefit from making the many incremental, though difficult, structural changes, within the life of each of us, along with democratically guiding informing and guiding them in our political society and for us all.
Structural change needs our public informing, our public demonstration and our factual dissent from misunderstandings that perpetuate political and social injustices or other personal harms or infringements on personal constitutional agency and protected expression [in the most broad sense].
Reasoned and factual dissent that is maintained and democratically re-informed and renewed is instructive. The more it is both plural and inter-generational in content and character and conscious purpose, the more change it supports us to make together and openly correct and recommit to together. Reasoned and factual dissent is, moreover, useful as tool for improving/revising both social coherence and social change when and if the pursuit of them [ social coherence and social change ] is working toward lessening misunderstanding and improving common understanding and outlook on improved cooperation.
The awareness of the global web-like and on-going reciprocal relationships, among people as well as more broadly among living things and the environments lived in, which we refer to as ecological relationships, was present both in the formative decades of thought about and in informing the efforts in the social or social-political setting to together consciously choose an institutional expression of reasoned, chosen cooperative relationships. Thus we have the deliberate move away from monarchic political hierachic political organization and the initiation of the forms and institutional procedural structures that support reasoned use of personal agency to provide the character of relationships and the procedural rules to democratize and order by self-imposed rules
Thank You, Kim. This is a very important article and I’m restacking it. I know several people who are putting head in the sand, hoping this all goes away. They couldn’t be more wrong!
Sadly but clearly, we are no longer a functioning democracy. Lower courts that are holding the line are meaningless when consistently overridden by a complicit Supreme Court, which is the Trump path to conquest. Bove, despite his demonstrated unfitness and fundamental vileness, with get at least 51 votes, move onto the appeals court, and await his SCOTUS appointment. Maybe Cannon will give him a run for his money, having proven her subservience.
Again, thank you, Ms Wehle, for this article.
As you note, "But many people still optimistically insist that the courts remain a check on this presidency. That’s fine, and I agree that for the most part, the lower federal courts are doing their job to duly apply the law to the government of Donald J. Trump. (The Supreme Court is another story.)
That doesn’t mean we can sit back and wait this one out, however, hoping that the courts and the midterms will just set everything straight. We all have to get involved somehow....
The DOJ whistleblower’s complaint is important because it is a window into the thinking of top DOJ leaders when it comes to their obligation to abide by the law and court orders. Lawyers are key to our system of justice. If DOJ lawyers aren’t invested in the rule of law, the rule of law cannot survive—even if judges try to do the right thing."
The agency, personal choice conscientious agency, which each of us is presumed to have within the context of our constitutional system of self-governance is the tool ready for use by us. This personal agency is what each of us has, innately, to respect and to cooperate with each other with.
The rule of law agreement, and specific not-to-be-messed-with explicit assertions, e.g., due process, equal inclusive application of law, ..., -- this agreement affords us the common and secure political space to consciously and decisively to act cooperatively for our common interests and against the common dangers posed by this Trump administration and its constellation of anti-democratic supporters.
addendum:
The Constitution represents one compilation and formal representation of this political sense of self [or social self-understanding in the immediate political environment lived in]. The rapid and positive emergence of formal Amendments [of the Twelve originally proposed and debated, these are the first ten amending the Constitution] to this Constitution gives this perspective on democratic political identity in formal, explicit rule of law form.
This is formal assertion of personal agency, agency not to be abused by government in the course of governance.
We are living in a moment that makes painfully clear the necessity of using these political tools of self-governance in our deliberations with each other [mutual respect and mutual empowerment in our formal and informal political discussions and mutual support for each other in making sure the rule of law is both respected and practiced], in our public statements of expectation for constituting legislation and for administering the laws, in our support of lawful challenges to perceived abuse of governing authority and law.
We are living in a moment that, also, makes wonderfully clear the novel perspectives which each of us may bring to public discussion and private conversation about the necessity and the benefits of our framework of self-government. It goes without saying, but it is also very important to reiterate, that we also have a Constitution that begs us to reform it by amendment, to reform our political procedural environment and tools to better the justice and other benefits of our constitutional rule of law society.
Finally, as historian Prof Stephen Kotkin, reminds us, we benefit from making the many incremental, though difficult, structural changes, within the life of each of us, along with democratically guiding informing and guiding them in our political society and for us all.
Structural change needs our public informing, our public demonstration and our factual dissent from misunderstandings that perpetuate political and social injustices or other personal harms or infringements on personal constitutional agency and protected expression [in the most broad sense].
Reasoned and factual dissent that is maintained and democratically re-informed and renewed is instructive. The more it is both plural and inter-generational in content and character and conscious purpose, the more change it supports us to make together and openly correct and recommit to together. Reasoned and factual dissent is, moreover, useful as tool for improving/revising both social coherence and social change when and if the pursuit of them [ social coherence and social change ] is working toward lessening misunderstanding and improving common understanding and outlook on improved cooperation.
The awareness of the global web-like and on-going reciprocal relationships, among people as well as more broadly among living things and the environments lived in, which we refer to as ecological relationships, was present both in the formative decades of thought about and in informing the efforts in the social or social-political setting to together consciously choose an institutional expression of reasoned, chosen cooperative relationships. Thus we have the deliberate move away from monarchic political hierachic political organization and the initiation of the forms and institutional procedural structures that support reasoned use of personal agency to provide the character of relationships and the procedural rules to democratize and order by self-imposed rules
Thank You, Kim. This is a very important article and I’m restacking it. I know several people who are putting head in the sand, hoping this all goes away. They couldn’t be more wrong!
Thank you for this reporting.
Perhaps of interest: https://whistleblower.org/press/doj-whistleblower-erez-reuveni-exposes-high-level-defiance-of-court-orders-and-retaliation/