This author trawled the law school blogs and like the rest of them isn’t too happy “because right now, the future looks frightening.”
They write…
The recriminations over the election of Donald “Grab Them By The Pussy” Trump have been going strong since approximately 3:00 a.m. on November 9th. But the question of how to actually deal with our new reality is still very much up in the air. A few law professors have offered up a small helping of optimism to try to chart a path forward.
Rick Hills, a professor at NYU Law, hopes Trump’s pathological need for approval will save us from the worst impacts:
[I]t might be that Trump’s lack of any inner core principles, a trait that is either Machiavellian or just pathologically narcissistic, could be a saving grace of his presidency. If his willingness to say anything to win immediate applause at the moment causes him to forget his campaign rhetoric about mass deportations, imprisoning political opponents, and prosecuting newspapers that criticize him, then more power to his pathology. His campaign rallies are over: Those crowds of the “poorly educated” that Trump said he loved have now dispersed. The praise he seems to crave, therefore, must come from the people who pay attention to governing in between elections — more politically attentive folks who generally disapprove of putsches and witch hunts.
I realize that taking comfort in Trump’s utter lack of any inner convictions sounds like a forlorn hope. But it is my current cold comfort as I sit in Shanghai in dismay.
Nicholas Bagley of Michigan Law School noted that lawyers must be diligent in maintaining the rule of law:
We have just elected a man who openly displays contempt for the rule of law—a man who has said he will jail his political opponents and who admires authoritarians because they ignore legal niceties. It’s like he looked at Tinkerbell and said, “Grab her by the pussy.”
I suppose that leaves me—and not just me, but all lawyers—with a choice. There’s the path of resignation, the one that says that fairies aren’t real and we should get over it. Quaint arguments about statutory text and constitutional history are passé, nothing more than grist for Trump’s mill. On the day after a dark election, that view holds a certain appeal.
The alternative is to reaffirm the faith in an age of disbelief—to keep clapping when the room has gone silent. Maybe it’s quixotic to say that the law matters to the American people when we’ve just elected a man who cares so little for it. But, at our best, lawyers can serve as secular mediators between the rule of law and a wayward public. Maybe our efforts can instill a faith that has been shaken to the core.
While neither of these hopes or strategies may be everything that is needed to survive the next four years, we know we need to find a way forward because right now, the future looks frightening.
