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Trump's Outlaw View of the Judiciary

Ruth Marcus on

"The complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited Constitution."

-- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist 78

WASHINGTON -- Somewhere, Hamilton -- West Indian, not Mexican -- is weeping over Donald Trump and his alarming, ignorant conception of the role of the judiciary.

The latest, scariest manifestation of Trump's attitude involves his now doubled-down attack on the federal judge -- Indiana-born, but Mexican for Trump's repellent purposes -- hearing the Trump University case.

U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel "is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater," in Trump's view, "a total disgrace," because he has allowed the class-action fraud lawsuit to proceed and, most recently, had the gall to unseal documents detailing Trump University's operations.

In Trump's universe -- governed by the rule of self-interest, not the rule of law -- Curiel's actions can only be explained by his ethnicity: "Mexican, which is great," but also, Trump told The Wall Street Journal Thursday, "an absolute conflict" of interest because "I'm building a wall."

 

The racism infecting Trump's assessment -- in a Trump presidency, under this cynical assessment, no Hispanic judge could rule on any executive initiative -- demands notice and rejection. But Trump's comments also highlight his disturbing attitude toward the role of the courts.

Reasonable people can differ over the feasibility of judges as neutral umpires, unburdened by ideology, dispassionately deducing the correct legal answer. Still, few would disagree that this conception represents the ideal to which most judges -- liberal and conservative, Republican and Democrat, Mexican and Polish -- aspire.

This is, for Trump, unimaginable. His world is not one of guiding principles but of gut emotions. If you cross him, oppose him, criticize him, you are a nasty guy or a dummy or a loser, whether you are a reporter or governor or federal judge with lifetime tenure. He uses his megaphone to seek to intimidate you as you do your job.

For Trump, litigation is deal-making by other means. The courts exist to hear his lawsuits, bless his bankruptcies, help crush his enemies. He sues willy-nilly, to intimidate critics (defamation suits are a specialty) and gain economic advantage. A USA Today analysis found that Trump and his businesses were involved in an astonishing 3,500 legal actions in federal and state courts over the past 30 years.

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