Yeomans: This Year, Constitution Day Is Different

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 14, 2018 – In the latest edition of Yeomans Work, AFJ Justice Fellow Bill Yeomans notes that with the arrival of Constitution Day (September 17) this year, there are plenty of reasons to fear for our democracy. Writes Yeomans: “The election of Donald Trump has changed Constitution Day forever. He has brought home the tenuousness of our grasp on constitutional government. His unprincipled actions have skewered constitutional norms that made the government work and highlighted flaws in our ability to hold an unfit president to account. Constitution Day now has a never-before-experienced urgency.”

The threat is made worse,  Yeomans says, by Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for a seat on the Supreme Court. “Trump has sought to ensure that the judiciary will not act as an independent check on presidential power,” Yeomans writes, “by nominating Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court…Kavanaugh was the nominee to pick if protecting the president from accountability was the goal. Kavanaugh had questioned whether U.S. v. Nixon, which required Nixon to comply with a trial subpoena by producing the Watergate tapes, was correctly decided or whether it improperly undermined the president’s control of White House information. Kavanaugh stated that the Supreme Court was wrong when it upheld the constitutionality of the now expired independent counsel statute. That position has obvious implications for the constitutionality of Robert Mueller’s appointment.”

The GOP-led Senate’s rush to confirm Kavanaugh in a politicized and truncated process only highlights the flaws in this nomination, Yeomans adds. On Constitution Day, we should “embrace the best of our fundamental values” and speak out against the continuous abuses perpetrated by this administration.

Yeomans Work focuses on the challenges to the justice system in the era of  Trump. Bill Yeomans is available for media interviews. Contact Laurie Kinney, Communications Director, at laurie@afj.org or 202-464-7367.

Watch the AFJ video on Constitution Day and Brett Kavanaugh here.