A group of Democratic lawmakers at the Connecticut state Capitol called on the Trump administration to “abide by the rule of law.”
Some state Republican leaders think he already is.
State Senator Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox (D-Bridgeport), a constitutional law professor at Quinnipiac University, said the administration’s actions — like deporting people without a hearing — are illegal.
“Today, we see an executive freezing federal funds for education and health care aimed at protecting our most vulnerable communities, closing branches of government established by a representative Congress, [and] putting arbitrary and ambiguous conditions on the allocation of federal grants,” Gadkar-Wilcox said.
“Putting arbitrary and ambiguous conditions on the allocation of federal grants which states rely on to provide social services, defying the rulings of the judicial branch and calling for impeachment for any assertion of judicial independence against the will of the executive, deporting lawful residents without any due process hearing, imposing exorbitant tariffs that have caused hardship and financial vulnerability without having a long term plan for their care, creating new executive departments like DOGE and employing individuals who the consent of Congress has not approved,” she continued.
Gadkar-Wilcox said those were examples of the president ignoring the rule of law—the notion that everyone, regardless of their position, is subject to the same rules.
But state Republican Chairman Ben Proto on Friday told WSHU he thought the rule of law was “wholly intact.”
“The rule of law in the United States is firmly intact and being implemented by our courts,” Proto said. “You may not like some of the rulings that come out, just as Donald Trump doesn't like some of the rulings that come out, but the rulings are there.”
On Monday, President Trump posted about the rule of law on social media, claiming it had been upheld by the Supreme Court’s decision to allow deportations to continue based on a law from 1798.
"The Supreme Court has upheld the Rule of Law in our Nation by allowing a President, whoever that may be, to be able to secure our Borders, and protect our families and our Country, itself. A GREAT DAY FOR JUSTICE IN AMERICA!" Trump wrote on his site Truth Social.
The American Bar Association — which Trump has sparred with in the past — recently called for the rule of law to be upheld without mentioning the president’s name.
Tim Shearin, President of the Connecticut Bar Association, spoke with Gadkar-Wilcox at the capitol on Tuesday.
“Last week, the Connecticut Bar Association joined the American Bar Association and its sister bar associations across the country in support of the rule of law, in support of the judges who support that law, and in support of lawyers who represent clients in those courts, even though some of those clients might be deemed by others to be objectionable,” Shearin said.
“We will continue to be a leader in that charge. But my message to all of you is that this burden is on all of us, all of us, not just lawyers,” he continued. “We must all be preachers of Lincoln's political religion of reverence of the law. Our very democracy depends on it.”
