The Rule of Law must be cherished and protected by anyone who desires their freedoms to survive the inevitable storms of conflict that arise in all cultures due to humanity’s frailties and imperfections.This is why many in America are so gravely concerned about our government’s recent blatant failures to uphold the Rule of Law. Without it, anarchy results. Which is exactly what the rolling silent coup being attempted today to remove the president amounts to.
Demonstrating the perverse impacts skewed law enforcement can have on the lives of real people is one reason I included several of the memoires recounted in my upcoming book release A Barrister's Tales. Where laws apply to some but not others, some form of the anarchy we are witnessing today always fills the void, and tragedy—if not some form of dictatorship—is almost certain to follow.
In the seventeenth century, English jurist Sir Edward Coke declared “the king ought to be under no man but under God and the law." So it should be for all our leaders today even if this means President Trump has to bite the bullet and insist his administration prosecute some of the powerful Washington “insiders” for the crimes they seem so obviously to have committed.
For years this nation has watched Hillary Clinton “allegedly” break a plethora of laws without ever being held to account. Similar criminal conduct by the likes of Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Brennan, Clapper, Yates, and the Ohrs has also been alleged so often they have become household names. Most recently we can add to this infamous list Joe Biden for his alleged misuse of the power of his office to extort a foreign country for his son’s personal financial benefit.
But, alas, none of these people have been held to account. Instead, they are allowed to continue calling for the president’s removal by accusing him of the very crimes for which many of them are guilty. All the while, they continue to freely sell their books, give speeches, and appear on sympathetic news channels spewing their disdain for the laws they have flouted and their utter contempt for those—like Attorney General Barr—who are charged under the law to hold them accountable. Sadly, this is largely due to the fact that the DOJ and FBI have utterly failed to uphold the Rule of Law that would demand these “insiders” be prosecuted for the crimes they have “allegedly” committed.
In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas argued that the Rule of Law represents God’s natural order as ascertained through divine inspiration and human reason—a standard perhaps best understood as a priceless coin with two equally important sides. One side tells us that a law applying to any must apply equally to all—rich and poor, powerful and weak. The other side assures us that none may be held to account under any law unless that law is knowable to all in advance.
Together, these two principles join to reflect a consensus in America that has existed since its inception that all human beings—both rulers and ruled—are equal in the sight of their Creator and so must also be viewed in the eyes of the law. Otherwise, we could end up with laws similar to those dictated by the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and others that resulted in horrors like extermination camps, the gulags, and killing fields.
By contrast, long before such tyrannies arose, America’s founding fathers wisely chose a better path by embracing the Rule of Law. Ultimately it contributed greatly to helping our nation prohibit similar travesties and avoid others altogether. In fact, it was this very conflict between the Rule of Law and practice of slavery that made the Civil War inevitable. At the cost of over six hundred thousand lives, America ultimately chose the path dictated by the Rule of Law, which set it apart from most nations in the world. A place where those freedoms previously available only to some were eventually made available to all regardless of race, creed, religion, sex, national origin … or their social, economic, or political status.
That is, until lately … which is a glaring systemic breakdown on our part that must not be allowed to continue.
Beyond satisfying notions of fairness and justice, upholding the Rule of Law is imperative to assuage our underlying fear of what could take place in our country should people who have only contempt for the Rule of Law somehow find a way to regain power, whether by means of a coup, impeachment or—dare we imagine?—even by assassination.
If the anarchy being created by such people today is allowed to continue, one could envision our country quickly devolving into a place where even to speak of patriotism and national sovereignty could be officially condemned as hate speech. Where churches that refuse to bow to certain progressive ideologies will be shuttered. Where force will be used to take the guns of most by an elitist class of rulers who will conveniently find a way to justify retaining theirs. Where the passions of anti-Semites will be encouraged under the rubric of opposing an American ally they condemn as being apartheid while simultaneously adherents of sharia law are encouraged to enter our country with a specific intent to supplant our constitution with their version of theocracy. Less we forget, also a country where illegals are both permitted and encouraged to cross our borders freely provided they agree to bow in submission to the progressive agenda of those on the left who only desire the entry of illegals to solidify their own power base.
Any who doubt such things are possible need only observe current events and listen to what progressive presidential candidates are promoting at this election cycle’s Democrat debates. They know obtaining their agenda is just one coup, impeachment, assassination, or corrupted election away from becoming a reality, and they will do anything necessary to achieve it. Consequently, unless and until the Rule of Law is restored in this country, these people will only be encouraged to continue their attempts to overthrow our duly elected constitutional government until they are ultimately permitted by us to succeed. If that should happen, America could soon find itself becoming a nation that is no longer worthy of the protection that might be afforded by the wall the president is so determined to build, and the fault will be rightfully laid at our feet.
In short, A.G. Bill Barr, without the Rule of Law, any wall our nation might build could soon be rendered worthless.
Clifford C. Nichols is an attorney licensed in California and New Mexico. He cordially invites you to send any comments you may have regarding this or any other editorial of his directly to him at cliffordnichols.com.