It’s a crucial moment for the rule of law in the United States. Donald Trump faces no fewer than four criminal investigations. Two are before a federal grand jury. One is unfolding in Fulton County, Georgia, where Trump was caught on tape asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to help him “find” enough extra votes to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

And last week Trump announced that he would soon be arrested in New York. Perhaps you’ve heard?

Ever since then, we’ve been subjected to hurricane-force speculation and fact-free punditry. My advice: Calm down. Let’s wait for the grand jury to review the evidence and vote on potential charges before we opine on whether they’re warranted. Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen already went to prison for his role in the hush-money scheme. And there are likely details and facts not yet public. So I’ll refrain from punditry on the case. We’ll know soon enough.

There are some things we do know, however.

First, as John Adams put so well, ours must be “a government of laws and not of men.” No other former U.S. president has been criminally charged, reflecting a strong democratic norm. But Trump flouts the law as few other public figures ever have. And other stable democracies’ ex-presidents have faced legal culpability (including in France and Israel). Corrupt public officials face prosecution all the time. We strive for a legal system that holds those who violate the law accountable. Nobody should be above the law — certainly not former presidents.

Second, we cannot flinch from naming the outrageous assault on the rule of law being perpetrated by Trump and his supporters. He’s within his rights to howl at the prospect of going to jail. But Trump has gone far beyond that, threatening “death & destruction” if he is charged, calling Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg an “animal,” posting an image in which he threatens Bragg with a baseball bat, and so on. Trump is trying to rev up the machine of violence we saw on January 6, 2021. We should remember that the courts are the country’s institutional safeguard against malicious prosecution, not the mob.

Trump’s enablers in Congress have been busy too. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called for Bragg’s arrest. House Republican committee chairs demanded that he testify about the ongoing probe. Congress can examine state and federal policy, but the GOP’s bid to interfere with a pending county-level indictment is, as Bragg put it, an “unprecedent[ed] inquiry by federal elected officials into an ongoing matter.” These lawmakers aren’t concerned with the law in New York — they’re concerned about the defendant in New York. Georgia lawmakers, too, are responding to the potential prosecution in Fulton County by introducing legislation to establish an oversight board that could sanction or even remove district attorneys.


One final note: I can’t think of anybody I would trust more to make the tough judgments involved in this case than Alvin Bragg. He’s savvy, smart, and principled — a prosecutor and public servant for two decades and a powerful voice for the idea that public safety and fairness go hand in hand. (My colleague Lauren-Brooke Eisen, who leads the Brennan Center’s Justice Program, co-chaired his transition team when he became district attorney in 2022.)

Those who care about the rule of law and the fair administration of justice should recognize that Trump’s call for violence against Bragg and his office represents outrageous and politically motivated interference with the judicial process. If Trump is indicted in Manhattan, it will be because a grand jury found reasonable cause to believe he committed a crime, based on legally sufficient evidence.

Bragg says he will “continue to follow the facts and be guided by the rule of law in everything we do.” John Adams could not have said it better.

The Disappearing Right to Bail
On April 4, Wisconsinites won’t just be electing a new state supreme court justice — they’ll be voting on two little-noticed constitutional amendments that could significantly weaken their right to bail. Most state constitutions have offered this right since the country’s founding, but in recent decades, several states have diluted or eliminated these protections. “The likely passage of these amendments speaks to the current political moment, in which public concerns about rising crime are weakening what had become a bipartisan consensus in favor of criminal justice reform,” law professor Quinn Yeargain writes for State Court Report. READ MORE

In another State Court Report analysis, criminal justice experts examine a legal challenge to new laws in Illinois that would have abolished cash bail, which unfairly harms low-income people and disproportionately impacts people of color. As the state’s high court considers whether legislators have the power to eliminate cash bail without amending the state constitution, the reforms will remain on hold, leaving thousands who would have been eligible for release in jail. READ MORE

A Chance to Rein in Government Spying
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was enacted to surveil external threats to national security, but it has since come to be used for things Congress never intended — including giving the FBI and other agencies the ability to spy on Americans. Though previous attempts to reform Section 702 have failed, there is now growing momentum for change on Capitol Hill. “This is a once in a generation opportunity for reform because there is broad bipartisan support,” Elizabeth Goitein told NPR. READ MORE

Significant Developments for Abortion Rights
This month, state supreme courts in Oklahoma and North Dakota ruled that their constitutions provide limited abortion protections in cases where the mother’s life was at risk. These rulings may be narrow, but they’re still significant, targeting some of the most extreme reproductive rights restrictions in the country. “Importantly, neither court resolved whether its state constitution also protects abortion rights in other circumstances, leaving those questions for another day — and likely future litigation,” Alicia Bannon writes for State Court Report. READ MORE

Coming Up
VIRTUAL EVENT — Disinformation Nation: How Partisan Politicians Distort History
Thursday, April 20, 6–7 p.m. ET
Misinformation abounds on social media and cable news. A new book points out that this applies not only to current events but to our nation’s history as well. Join us for a live virtual conversation on Thursday, April 20, at 6 p.m. ET with the editors of the book, Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past, and some of the writers featured in it. RSVP TODAY


News
Veronica Degraffenreid on the loss of experienced election officials // VIRGINIA PUBLIC RADIO
Michael German on FBI surveillance of Chicago activists // GRIST
Douglas Keith on ad spending in Wisconsin’s supreme court election // BLOOMBERG GOVERNMENT
Joanna Zdanys on the importance of funding public campaign financing in New York // GOTHAMIST
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The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that works to reform, revitalize – and when necessary defend – our country’s systems of democracy and justice.





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