On the Rule of Law — a Reprise — Plus

June 12/13, 2025

On a day in which I had too much to do but got it done anyway. Followed by an evening meeting of my community’s veterans club, I thought I would take the night off. But there‘s too much that’s important happening including the outrageous treatment of United States Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California who tried to ask a question of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, during a public press conference she was holding in his state ostensibly to lie about the deployment of California National Guardsmen under federal control and United States Marines in Los Angeles as the Trump administration’s response to the mostly peaceful protests of ICE activities there. Identifying himself he tried to ask his question on behalf of his constituents and was wrestled to the ground, forcibly handcuffed, and detained by several members of her security detail. Later, as Fox “News” reported the lie that the Senator had not identified himself, she repeated it despite video footage proving the opposite. That Trump and his toadies are willing to do today to a sitting United States Senator that which yesterday they would only do to a poor migrant is a mark of his dictatorial ambitions. He and his minions have told us what we must fight and in ordering him to relinquish control of the National Guard back to California, the federal courts have shown the way. Through the Rule of Law.

ON THE RULE OF LAW

[Opinion]by Leland J. Katz

When John Adams called a republic “a government of laws, not of men,” he was paraphrasing James Harrington who said an “Empire of laws, not of men,” is “according to ancient prudence.” In contrast, Harrington said, “modern prudence” counsels that “some man, or some few men, subject a city or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private interest: which . . . may be said to be the empire of men, and not of laws.”

From the time of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States until January of 2017, with the exception of the time in the mid 19th century when, perceiving a threat to their wealth, the southern landed oligarchs of their time were willing to destroy the nation by putting in place a weak central government (the Confederacy), America, while not perfect, was principally a nation of laws.

Lincoln not only saved the Union, he saved the Great American Experiment in Constitutional Democracy.

They killed him for it.

Then, during reconstruction and again in the 1930s as Fascism arose in Europe, the Rule of Law in the United States came under attack again but the attacks failed. Now, since 2017, with the rise of authoritarian Trumpism emphasizing the rule of an individual person rather than respect for the law, the Rule of Law is under attack again. This time by Donald Trump and by his sycophants among the citizenry, in the Republican Party, and in the right wing media.

One good example of the right wing press is the New York Post which, on the day most newspapers around the country featured the word “Guilty”, the front page of the Post read, “INJUSTICE. NYC jury makes Donald Trump first felon president after political hit job.”

The members of the Republican Party currently In office willing to denigrate the system of justice and the Rule of Law in service to a single charismatic individual are even more of a threat. These betrayers of democracy include moderate Susan Collins, MAGA supporters Marco Rubio, Tommy Tuberville, and Ted Cruz in the Senate and Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and Jim Jordan in the House among others. The betrayal reaches all the way up to the office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, second in line to the presidency after the vice president, Mike Johnson. All individuals who believe following Trump is their path to personal power and who are willing to betray the Constitution and their oath to support and defend it against all enemies, foreign and domestic and to bear true faith and allegiance to it. Such is the lure of power. It is why John Adams was obsessed with “a nation of laws”.

Why this is important should be self evident. But in case it is not yet clear, it’s simple. A nation of men and not of laws will act in what those in power perceive to be their own personal self interest. A nation of laws upholding the Rule of Law will act in the best interests of the citizenry as a whole.

If the Rule of Law is the necessary precursor to democracy, the destruction of the Rule of Law is the necessary precursor to Fascist authoritarianism. It is why the words and actions of Donald Trump and his supporters are so dangerous to our nation. This includes his Brownshirt wannabes among the general population, state officials like Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gregg Abbot and Ken Paxton of Texas, members of Congress already named, and members of the judiciary such as Aileen Cannon in Florida slow walking the Mar-a-Lago documents case, MAGA supporters Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito on the Supreme Court refusing to recuse themselves from January 6th related cases, and even Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts whom the FSB, the Russian Federal Security Service and the successor to the Soviet KGB, would call a “useful idiot” as he proclaims his intent to defend the independence rather than the integrity of the Court.

It has always been necessary for we the people to show up in large numbers at our polling places on Election Day and, by our vote, reaffirm our commitment to our democracy. Today it is even more necessary to turn away from office those who would destroy the Rule of Law and to defend the Great American Experiment in Constitutional Democracy and save it for our children and our grandchildren. Today it has become equally necessary to show up on the streets, there to peaceably assemble and petition our government for a redress of grievances of which there are many.

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Leland J. (Lee) Katz is a 3 year veteran of the USAF officer corps having served as a nuclear weapons alert duty officer on a British air base in northwestern Germany as part of the NATO nuclear strike force immediately after the Cuban Missile Crisis and as officer in charge of the Athens (Greece) station of the Armed Forces Courier Service. He is also a 38 year veteran of corporate America. His book, The Pretenders, published in 2018 is an autobiographical novel focused on his career in high tech. He holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts, a MS from Boston University, and a MBA from Boston College. He writes regularly on “My Views on the News” and other topics covering politics, international relations, and other topics of national and international interest in his blog on Substack.

In other news, Israel has made a preemptive strike on Iran.

And the visual of active duty military personnel in uniform and on an American military post attending a political rally led by the chief MAGAT is in my view an insult to all of us who took and still honor our oath to “preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”.

The author in a publicity still taken while he was in AFROTC summer training at Lockbourne Air Force Base south of Columbus, Ohio in August, 1959