Following Court Decisions

As a lawyer and a public servant, I feel very strongly that government officials must adhere to legally binding court decisions even if they disagree with them.

I think most people agree with this and recognize the rule of law as the foundation of our society and economy.

But public evidence is mounting that the federal administration may be ignoring court orders and are considering continuing to flout the courts' authority. Examples include: failures to follow orders to (temporarily) unfreeze federal funding and USAID funding; DOJ nominees not committing to follow court orders; Vance and Musk questioning judicial authority; Trump implying that actions he believes are right cannot be illegal.

I see this behavior as an existential threat to our legal system - a crossing of a bright red line with extremely serious consequences. I do not want to live in a society where those in power are above the law, period.

If you agree, and I bet you do, I urge you to tell your federal elected officials that you feel this way - especially if they are Republican (who are more influential in the current balance of power).

I think our representatives and senators need to be reminded how much we all care about this, so they feel empowered to stand up for the rule of law in these times.

I see this as being about our core values, not party politics or progressives vs. conservatives. In fact, we all know leftists throughout history have been as prone to abuses of power as anyone else. I would be saying the same thing if the administration were a different party.

So I hope this can be a moment in which we all - myself included - re-pledge ourselves to act with integrity and in line with our fundamental values. We can have different goals, but we should all play fair as we try to achieve them.

Let me know if you agree and if you've reached out to your federal electeds too.