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A rarely discussed legal term is getting its day in the sun.
“The rule of law” is the crazy idea that everyone in a democracy is accountable to the same laws and that everyone is entitled to their day in court (and to be represented by an attorney).
The legal term took top billing in a recent episode of “60 minutes” as well as in letters penned by a group of professors at the University of Nebraska College of Law and a collection of the state’s legal groups.
The professors’ letter was directed at the state’s congressional delegation. It flatly stated that the rule of law was “in peril” due to recent actions taken by the Trump Administration, and that Nebraska’s senators and representatives needed to do something about it.
The letter written by the Nebraska Bar Association and signed by 12 other legal groups didn’t mention Trump, but waded into the controversy sideways, by seeking to clarify that democracy depends on adhering to the rule of law.
Both letters, as well as the 60 Minutes episode, was spawned by a dizzying batch of actions taken by the Trump Administration, including some attacks (labeled “personal vendettas”) aimed at some of the nation’s largest law firms.
The questionable actions included revoking student visas of those who exercised their free speech rights, failing to provide “even minimal” due process rights to immigrants facing swift deportation, and refusing to comply with an order of the U.S. Supreme Court to return a man mistakenly deported.
Plus, Trump threatened to bar law firms and some lawyers from federal courthouses (where lawyers work) and cancel their federal contracts because they had represented interests opposed to Trump policies.
Several of those law firms, 60 Minutes said, cut deals with the president so as to avoid losing major clients, who feared they would face repercussions of their own for hiring the firms. Four others are challenging the directives in court.
One Georgetown law professor, who used to work for the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, called the Trump threats “unprecedented.” He said they endangered the very bedrock of the nation’s legal system, by scaring away law firms from representing persons or interests that might upset the administration.
The Nebraska Bar Association’s letter, signed by 12 other legal groups, reminded us that all lawyers, regardless of political persuasion or position, take an oath to uphold the U.S. and Nebraska constitutions.
A federal judge was more blunt, ruling that Trump’s attack on one law firm was unconstitutional.
“Settling personal vendettas by targeting a disliked business or individual for punitive government action is not a legitimate use of the powers of the U.S. government or an American President,” the judge wrote.
Trump maintains that he was “targeted” by some of the law firms and lawyers he went after. He has long complained that the 2020 election was stolen from him (it wasn’t, as confirmed by 60 some court rulings) and that he was marked for prosecution after urging the Jan. 6 mob to go to the U.S. Capitol and “fight like hell.” The Capitol was ransacked, dozens of officers were injured and one protester was shot and killed, but the 2020 election results, after order was restored, were confirmed.
But complaining about the past and trying to intimidate and influence the judicial system are much different. The judiciary is a separate branch of government that is supposed to be independent of the executive branch. When we go to court, whether to contest a lawsuit or a criminal charge, we expect to face an impartial judge and impartial jury, and be represented by a lawyer who doesn’t fear retribution or retaliation by the government for doing their job.
This isn’t Russia where going to court is a foregone conclusion based on what the government wants to happen.
Paul Hammel has covered Nebraska state government and the state for decades. He retired in 2024 as senior contributor with the Nebraska Examiner. He was previously with the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha Sun. A native of Ralston, Nebraska, he loves traveling and writing about the state.
