By Robert Reich
One way dictators take
over democracies is by threatening the independence of a nation’s courts.
Donald Trump is doing just this.
Connect the following
dots:
1. In January, Trump
blasted a federal judge for staying his travel ban. “The opinion of this so-called
judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is
ridiculous and will be overturned!” he tweeted.
2. In February, after
the judge made the stay permanent, Trump issued a veiled threat: “Just cannot
believe a judge would put our country in such peril. If something happens blame
him and court system. People pouring in. Bad!”
3. Last week, after another federal judge issued a nationwide injunction blocking Trump’s travel ban, Trump’s Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, said “I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the president of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power.”
4. On Tuesday, after
another federal judge blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a threat
to take away funds from sanctuary cities, the White House issued a statement
condemning the judge as “unelected.”
The statement charged “this San Francisco
judge’s erroneous ruling is a gift to the criminal gang and cartel element in
our country, empowering the worst kind of human trafficking and sex
trafficking, and putting thousands of innocent lives at risk. This case is yet
one more example of egregious overreach by a single, unelected district judge.”
5. On Wednesday, Trump
said he was considering breaking up the court of appeals for the 9th Circuit,
in which these three federal judges hear and decide cases. "There are many
people who want to break up the 9th Circuit,” he said. “It’s outrageous.”
The
9th Circuit Court covers Arizona, California, Alaska, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon,
Montana, Washington and Hawaii, as well as Guam and the Northern Mariana
Islands. Eighteen of the court’s 25 judges were appointed by Democratic
presidents.
It is the job of the
Justice Department to provide a reasoned case for overruling a federal judge’s
decision. In condemning individual judges and threatening to break up the court
of appeals instead, Trump is attacking the foundations of the separation of
powers in the Constitution.
This assault on the
federal judiciary is an abuse of Trump’s constitutional authority – yet another
ground for impeachment.
ROBERT B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of
Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at
the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in
the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten
most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written
fourteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The
Work of Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent,
"Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
INEQUALITY FOR ALL.