Trump comments threaten rule of law

We have observed the rule of law sustained at the highest level of government through many examples. Those include the use of the military by President Eisenhower to implement the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. (1957), and the adherence of President Nixon to the Supreme Court rulings concerning the Watergate tapes. The current statements of Donald Trump concerning federal Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel are a far greater threat to the rule of law in America than has ever been experienced before because Trump is a potential president. It is clear Trump’s statements have no foundation in law or fact.

Trump does not care what the law is and is speaking without the agreement or support of his own lawyers. His view is all that matters to him. The law, the courts, his lawyers are meaningless to him. Thus, the rule of law is irrelevant to him. We appeal to the American Bar Association and our State Bar not just to express concern, but to create an organizational opposition to his position to educate the public. As the saying goes, now is not the time for good people to do nothing.

Michael H. Miller
Stephanie R. Scher

Los Angeles

Editor’s note: A number of voluntary bar associations have taken a position on this issue including the Bar Association of San Francisco and the New York State Bar Association. Under Keller v. State Bar of California, 496 U.S. 1 (1990), the State Bar may not, under the First Amendment, use mandatory dues to support activities of an ideological or political nature which fall outside of regulating the legal profession and improving the quality of legal services.