[EL] Of Krakens and such

[Gardner, James]

The consensus view of the Trump campaign's late-stage thrashing about in court seems to be that it is mainly an inappropriately instrumental use of the courts for P.R. purposes - keeping the base fired up.  It is that, surely.  But I am struck by something else: the profound disrespect expressed by these actions for the rule of law.  In fact, the Trump strategy puts me in mind of a commonplace maxim of autocrats (usually attributed to Oscar Benevides, military dictator of Peru during the 1930s): "For my friends everything; for my enemies, the law."  It seems as though important people in the Trump campaign sincerely believe that when they walk into a courtroom, the law shouldn't matter, and the facts shouldn't matter - all that matters is that you are a friend of Trump.  If you can demonstrate that, then by all rights you should win, and if you can't, you should certainly lose.  I feel somewhat reassured (for now, anyway) that the alarming US slide into populist authoritarianism hasn't penetrated quite that far into the judiciary.

Jim
___________________________
James A. Gardner
Bridget and Thomas Black SUNY Distinguished Professor of Law
Research Professor of Political Science
University at Buffalo School of Law
The State University of New York
Room 514, O'Brian Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
voice: 716-645-3607
fax: 716-645-2064
e-mail: jgard at buffalo.edu<mailto:jgard at buffalo.edu>
Faculty page: https://www.law.buffalo.edu/faculty/facultyDirectory/GardnerJames.html
Papers at http://ssrn.com/author=40126


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://webshare.law.ucla.edu/Listservs/law-election/attachments/20201208/e0326109/attachment.html>