Marin Voice: Trump’s attacks on lawyers are a concern for all of us
People like to dislike lawyers. So when the U.S. president tries, by executive fiat, to put some law firms out of business, people tend not to care.
But here’s why all of us should care. It is clear to many that President Donald Trump is doing it so the courts won’t be able to stop him, no matter how unconstitutional his actions.
As William Shakespeare famously warned over 400 years ago, the first step on the road to dictatorship is to “kill all the lawyers.” It’s a deranged, but potentially effective way to increase power.
Our judicial system is the only force that stands between a would-be tyrant and our freedoms, especially when Congress is complicit. But courts cannot do their job unless lawyers bring cases. Vigorous counsel who sue the government are not a bug of our legal system, as Trump thinks, but a necessary feature.
Lawyers are also needed to investigate Trump’s conduct where appropriate, like the Russian interference with our elections, the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on our Capitol and some of what is emanating from the White House now.
Trump’s plan appears to be the intimidation of certain lawyers until they capitulate to save their businesses. If they come after him, he seems ready to withdraw security clearances, restrict access to federal buildings and do whatever else is needed to scare away clients and bankrupt those lawyers.
Unfortunately, some firms have already capitulated rather than fight in court, as they are trained to do. Indeed, four of the largest firms agreed to spend $340 million to “support the administration’s initiatives” along with other restraints on their businesses. You can be sure that they won’t get in Trump’s way again.
More surrenders will only encourage Trump to continue his campaign to neuter law firms that opposed him — and to crush opposition from anyone who disagrees with him about anything.
Whether those deals reflect prudent compromise or shameful surrender, a few firms fortunately have shown more courage. They’ve sued Trump over his executive orders and prevailed preliminarily in the courts.
These more principled firms include the Boston-based firm where former special counsel Robert Mueller was a partner before and after he investigated Trump for Russia collusion. The firm’s offense, in Trump’s self-centric view, was welcoming back the lawyer who had the temerity to investigate Trump. He was offended that the firm applauded Mueller as embodying “the highest value of our firm and profession.”
I take this personally because Mueller and I were friends and law school classmates. We worked at the same San Francisco law firm in the old days. He went on to government service in multiple Republican and Democratic administrations. I continued as a law firm partner for almost half a century. Despite our different career paths, we both understand the crucial role of lawyers in our democracy as do most lawyers.
I have great hope that the Bill of Rights, presciently designed to protect against excesses of the British monarch, will save us from this wanna-be tyrant too. Just last year, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed that the government may not “punish or suppress disfavored expression” or “attempt to coerce private parties” to accomplish illegal ends. It cannot “suppress ideas thought inimical to the government’s own interest,” whether those ideas are expressed in the town square or propounded by “litigants and their attorneys.”
This principle is so embedded in our rule of law that the Supreme Court including Trump’s three appointees is likely to be unanimous in ruling against his punitive, intimidating tactics here. I only wish that more law firms were willing to show fortitude and put principle over profits — and to speak out publicly and forcefully against Trump’s unconscionable campaign to silence lawyers.
San Rafael resident Bob Mittelstaedt is a retired law firm partner.