I would have hoped that already-wealthy lawyers would have had the gumption and the guts to stand up to Donald Trump’s assault on the U.S. Constitution. Sadly, it’s pocketbooks uber alles for the folks who supposedly believe everyone is entitled to representation. I guess they just forgot to mention that only those in MAGA's good graces deserve competent, properly-resourced representation.
From The Washington Post:
Biden-era officials said they’re having trouble finding lawyers willing to defend them. The volunteers and small nonprofits forming the ground troops of the legal resistance to Trump administration actions say that the well-resourced law firms that once would have backed them are now steering clear. The result is an extraordinary threat to fundamental constitutional rights of due process and legal representation, they said — and a far weaker effort to challenge Trump’s actions in court than during his first term.
Legal scholars say no previous U.S. administration has taken such concerted action against the legal establishment, with Trump’s predecessors in both parties typically respecting the constitutionally enshrined tenet that everyone deserves effective representation in court and that lawyers cannot be targeted simply for the cases and clients they take on.
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The sweeping campaign is targeting the livelihoods of the people best qualified to contest the legality of Trump’s agenda. Lawyers must now contend with the possibility they would face lawsuits, fines and other punishment aimed at them and even their other clients should they contest Trump administration efforts in court.
The Post points out that while there will probably be lawyers willing to go up against the Trump administration and its unelected head, billionaire Elon Musk, that does not mean the Musk/Trump foes will have adequate representation. “Complex litigation can require vast resources: experienced lawyers versed in the arcana of case law, platoons of paralegals doing research across thousands of pages of evidence and the stamina to go toe-to-toe with the unparalleled legal resources of the federal government.”
Trump and boss Elon Musk surely earned an “atta boy” from their fascist role models: Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Viktor Orbán.
More from The Post:
[T]he president is following a playbook from other countries whose leaders have sought to undermine democratic systems and the rule of law, including Russia, Turkey and Hungary. Leaders in those countries have similarly attacked lawyers with the effect of hollowing out a pillar of justice systems to expand their power without violating existing laws. They have successfully used the strategy to blast away their political opposition and any effort to counter their actions through courts.
There to help with the fascism is Fox News. Host Brian Kilmeade advocated for doing away with due process altogether, a core tenet of our justice system. He was talking about due process for immigrants. But we know he’d parrot the same propaganda for jailing Tesla protesters or just about anyone else the Musk/Trump regime wanted to silence or maybe disappear altogether.
Just in case you think appeasing Trump slows his roll...
