Dear John,
“President’s Day” usually presents a welcome opportunity to enjoy a long weekend and holiday sales. This year’s observance, however, blighted by relentless attacks on democracy and the rule of law, warrants a moment to reflect on the President behind the holiday.
Despite the ubiquitous references to President’s Day, the official name remains Washington’s Birthday. A worthy focus is our first President’s Farewell Address, setting forth his wise and prescient concerns, explaining why he would not seek another term.
Washington urged that the country’s new Constitution be “sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue.” He described the unity of government as the “main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize.” He then issued a warning for the ages:
But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth … it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned…
Washington described the Constitution as a sacred obligation imposed upon all.
How, then, have we reached a point where the Constitution could be trampled by new government officials, including an unelected co-president? Where is the courage of Congress to fulfill its own sacred obligation?
Instead, we are now reliant on the emergence of heroes whose names we would never have known had they not stepped into this moment with courage, conviction, and grace. These heroes are sacrificing their own cherished careers in government service, recognizing that the preservation of the country’s foundational principles is at stake.
Interim United States Attorney Danielle Sassoon and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten, along with five other prosecutors, resigned rather than implement an improper and unethical demand to dismiss bribery charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Both Sassoon and Scotten wrote letters that brought clarity to the ways in which the newly installed leaders of the Department of Justice have already abandoned their obligation to operate without fear or favor.
Instead, favor seems to be the order of the day. And fear is the cudgel by which they will lead.
This Washington’s Birthday, before hitting the malls, let’s pause for a moment to appreciate the delicate framework on which this country was built, and thank those heroes among us willing to sacrifice their own ambitions to protect the Constitutional framework that has long served us.
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Lawyers Defending American Democracy
