Legal expert details roadmap for 'protecting the rule of law' during Trump’s second presidency

09 January

During Donald Trump's first term as president, he often clashed with non-MAGA conservatives he picked for his administration — from former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to ex-White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly to former National Security Adviser John Bolton. But President-elect Trump is hoping to avoid such conflicts during his second presidency by nominating an abundance of far-right loyalists and ultra-MAGA Republicans.

Trump's critics have been sounding the alarm about his picks for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), including Kash Patel (his choice for FBI director) and former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (who could replace Merrick Garland as U.S. attorney general if confirmed by the U.S. Senate). Both Patel and Bondi have expressed their willingness to use the DOJ against Trump's enemies.

In an op-ed/essay published by the New York Times on January 9, legal expert Quinta Jurecic lays out a roadmap for "protecting the rule of law" during Trump's second presidency.

"Over the next four years," Jurecic warns, "the Justice Department as an institution will face a profound test of its commitment to the values that Mr. Garland set out in January 2024 as 'enforcing the law, without fear or favor.' The equal administration of justice, according to established rules rather than the opaque whims of a tyrant, is the aspiration of law in a liberal democracy."

Jurecic adds, "It is worth considering why voters seem to care so little about these values, such that Mr. Trump's commitment to destroying the independence and integrity of law enforcement — or at least downgrading it — was not a deal-breaker for much of the electorate."

Jurecic — a fellow at the Brookings Institute, editor for Lawfare and freelancer for The Atlantic — emphasizes that "those who care about the Justice Department as an institution…. must insist on the importance of independent law enforcement free from political interference."

"The Justice Department is not alone in this," the attorney argues. "These struggles are best understood as part of an conversation in the wake of the 2024 election among Americans committed to liberal democracy."

Jurecic continues, "On the one hand, they have risen to defend American institutions. On the other, this defense risks eliding the many ways those institutions stumbled. And that, in turn, risks further eating away at public trust, if people perceive a widening gap between high-minded claims of institutional integrity and their personal experiences of government’s limitations."

Quinta Jurecic's full New York Times op-ed is available at this link (subscription required).

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