Trump’s Spat with the Federalist Society Signals a Heightened Threat to the Rule of Law
This excerpt is from a piece by Rachel Rossi that originally ran at Democracy Docket on June 25, 2025.
The increasingly clear and blatant loyalty test for judicial nominees should trigger alarm bells. Conservative — or “originalist,” if you prefer the right’s euphemism for its judges — is no longer good enough for Trump. He wants judges who are loyal to him personally over the Constitution or the law. That crosses a new line from selecting judges who will cater to his policies on a partisan level to judges who will ensure he always wins, regardless of the outcome’s popularity on either side of the political spectrum and regardless of the law.
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This kind of blind loyalty to whatever Trump wants, whether it is legal or not, is the expectation we must now have for his future nominees, including judges and other officials across his administration. Only six months in, we know all too well that this is different than his first term and he is eager to exact revenge against dissenters and demand compliance with his agenda, including by deploying the military in response to peaceful protests and handcuffing senators or comptrollers who dare to question his illegal actions. He is only going to select those he can count on to be obedient to these whims.