WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday, on Constitution Day, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Vanita Gupta, former U.S. Associate Attorney General, Justice Mike Donnelly, retired Ohio Supreme Court Justice, and Praveen Fernandes, Vice President of the Constitutional Accountability Center, joined the Not Above the Law coalition for a press call moderated by Lisa Gilbert, Co-President of Public Citizen and co-chair of the coalition, on the state of American democracy.
Speakers detailed how the Trump administration has challenged core constitutional checks across the board, from the politicization of the Department of Justice under Todd Blanche to violations of Congress’s power of the purse, abuses of emergency and war powers, and repeated attacks on the First Amendment.
“What you see right now is the Department of Justice, where I used to serve as a United States attorney, is now a weapon of the White House’s corruption apparatus deployed by Trump’s personal lawyer to make good for Trump’s political donors,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). “They lose in court, and they lose again, and they lose again. But winning was never the point. Buying time for big donors while the money keeps flowing, that’s the point. Keeping an eye on corruption this Constitution Day is a very important thing.”
“The key job of the president is to take care that the laws the laws Congress has passed are faithfully executed—not rewritten, not edited, not impounded, not redirected, not thwarted and distorted,” said Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD).“We’ve strayed a long way from that constitutional design, especially with the conversion of the Justice Department into an instrument of political persecution. We are not going to allow any corruption or contamination of the law enforcement function to go unaddressed. We are fighting for the Constitution and the rule of law.”
“We have a president and administration that disregards due process and the rule of law. One that uses the Justice Department, which is now run [by] the president’s personal lawyer, to literally punish his perceived political enemies,” said Vanita Gupta, former U.S. Associate Attorney General. “It’s an administration led by a president who has used his position to enrich himself and his family… reaping literally billions of dollars from foreign governments and domestic donors seeking favors.”
“The Department of Justice must be the nation’s law firm, not the president’s private law firm. We see it when prosecutions of prominent political adversaries follow the president’s public demands for action against them,” said Justice Mike Donnelly, retired Ohio Supreme Court Justice. “The Constitution will not defend itself… that responsibility belongs to us.”
“You cannot defend the Constitution’s grant of the power of the purse to Congress if you ignore congressional appropriations decisions. You cannot support the Constitution’s establishment of an independent judiciary if your administration fails to obey court orders,” said Praveen Fernandes, Vice President of the Constitutional Accountability Center.“Constitutional accountability is not a job for the few. It’s a responsibility that all Americans share.”
“We’re in an era of lawlessness and rampant authoritarian overreach. Our democracy, our safety, our fundamental rights and freedoms, they are all at risk,” said Lisa Gilbert, Co-President of Public Citizen and Co-Chair of the Not Above the Law coalition. “Accountability requires action. We cannot let the current state of our democracy become normalized, but instead must join the fight to defend our constitution.”
Watch the full call here.