Dear John,

In the movie, the Glass Onion, Kate Hudson’s Birdie – with self-admiration and a lack of
introspection – announced that she is a “truth-teller.” In response, the detective played by Daniel
Craig drolly noted, “It’s a dangerous thing to mistake speaking without thought for
speaking the truth.”

Craig summarized what we are seeing every day in this country. Those who yell the loudest
about knowing the truth, are more likely doing so while trampling on other people’s civil
rights and liberties, speaking without thought to the real-life impact of their cacophony.
They give no thought to the grave harm caused when they create dystopian communities where
books are banned, history is censored, companies are punished for alternative views, LGBTQ+
families are ostracized, transgender kids are humiliated, and caring about others is demeaned as a
“woke” ideology that must die.

If the above paragraph sounds like hyperbole, the Washington Post demonstrates why it is not in
its article about the scorched earth tactics of 8 newly elected members of the Ottawa County
Board of Commissioners in Michigan.

A local body that once took pride in its inclusive, open government run by public servants
became autocratic in its governance, firing experienced professionals and replacing them with
people whose primary qualification seemed to be their ideology. The Commissioners shuttered
the diversity, equity, and inclusion office and changed the County’s motto, Where You Belong, to
Where Freedom Rings, based on uniting the county “around America’s ‘true history’ as a ‘land of
systemic opportunity built on the Constitution, Christianity and capitalism.’”

The article revealed “a case study in what happens when one of the building blocks of
American democracy is consumed by ideological battles over race, religion and American
history.”

We must all vigilantly protect democracy and the rule of law at every level, from local
governments to the United States Supreme Court. Recent reporting about Justice Thomas’
behavior demonstrate that clear rules and accountability are required to respond to blurred ethical
lines. Our executive director co-authored an article for the Boston Globe, stressing the need
for a binding code of conduct applicable to the Court and highlighting the draft proposed
code that LDAD and the Project on Government Oversight prepared: The Supreme Court
needs a code of ethics. Here’s one to consider.

Please join LDAD in our efforts to protect democracy. Email us if you are interested in
volunteering, and please consider a match to the $10,000 offered by Mintz partner, Doug
Hauer, and his spouse, Jack Gilad, before the end of this month.


Lawyers Defending American Democracy
303 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02210
United States
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