Here are 6 unexpected traits protecting US Democracy from Trump’s assault

Atlantic authors Kevin Cope and Mila Versteeg say Americans don’t generally brag about America’s ponderous, glacier government and its stubborn, recalcitrant court system. However, these “trade-offs … offer a clear advantage when democracy is under threat.”

U.S. courts are legion, and they form a formidable army a would-be autocrat must fight past. Judicial review in much of Europe and Latin America is often centralized in a single constitutional court, so despots “need only capture a single court to effectively remove judicial constraints,” by adjusting age limits or creating additional seats.

“The United States’ court system is built differently: Hundreds of lower-court federal judges with lifetime tenure have both the formal power and the political will to invalidate executive actions nationwide,” write Mila Versteeg, a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, and Kevin Cope, an associate professor of law and public policy at the University of Virginia.

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“Even judges appointed by Republican presidents, including by Trump himself, commonly rule against him. Trump-appointed judges have recently prevented deportations under the Alien Enemies Act and halted the forced leave of 2,700 USAID employees,” they say. Judges appointed by conservative Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have similarly thwarted Trump executive orders rescinding birthright citizenship.

“And all three of the Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices joined the full Court in upholding a lower court’s order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvadoran prison,” they report.

Another thing going for the U.S., says Cope and Verteeg, is big government.

“In normal times (America’s aversion to big or rapid legal change) … can stifle progress, but in unusual times, it can be a bulwark against backsliding.”

Consider other nations where leaders like Viktor Orbán and his parliamentary supermajority rewrote Hungary’s constitution, or Hugo Chávez rammed through an entirely new Venezuelan constitution. That Senate filibuster rule that people take turns hating depending on who’s in power, also tramples Trump’s sweeping changes, forcing him to mandate initiatives through 150 executive orders, which evaporate as soon as Trump leaves office.

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Couple these things with other safeguards, including a robust army of public-interest advocacy groups and a strong separation of powers between regional and national governments, and you’ve got some strong guardrails for the next American Orbán or Chávez.

“Finally, U.S. constitutional law and courts maintain a unique commitment to free speech,” writers say. Governments in the Philippines, India, and Germany have used libel laws to suppress criticism of national leaders and other dissent, but U.S. public officials “face substantial hurdles in suing or prosecuting critics into silence. Sarah Palin, Devin Nunes, and Donald Trump himself each recently learned this the hard way.”

The threat of Trump still remains, they add. “Many of the more vulnerable in American society — immigrants and civil servants, for instance — are especially and justifiably afraid for the future. The threats to American democracy and the rule of law are real, and they should be taken seriously.”

But America’s “237-year-old Constitution, private organizations, and public institutions are far better positioned than their foreign counterparts under similar threat.”

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Read the full Atlantic report here.