The Dangers to the American Rule of Law Will Outlast the Next Election

Authors

Paul Gowder, Northwestern University

Volume

2020

First Page

126

Last Page

164

Publication Date

2020

Document Type

Essay

Abstract

According to many constitutional lawyers and political scientists, the presidential administration of Donald Trump (for scholars on the left), or the response to that presidency (for scholars on the right) poses serious dangers to American constitutional democracy and the rule of law. However, this Essay argues that a more careful understanding of the contemporary dangers to the American rule of law are both broader-based and longer-term: inequality among the public, and epistemic polarization among the public as well as among legal elites (including constitutional law professors themselves), undermine the capacity of the American people to use the political tools available in our constitutional system to resist any power-grabbing executive, regardless of ideology. The rule of law conflicts of the Trump administration, while dangerous in their own right, are fundamentally symptoms of this broader political and legal crisis.

Keywords

Jurisprudence, Law and Society, Judges, Rule of Law

Recommended Citation

Paul Gowder, The Dangers to the American Rule of Law Will Outlast the Next Election, 2020 Cardozo L. Rev. De-Novo 126 (2020).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/de-novo/76