Every literate person has heard the phrase: “justice delayed is justice denied.” There are indications that, in substance if not in exact wording, it dates to the 1600s. https://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/2967-you-can-quote-them or even further back. http://tinyurl.com/y3nucucu In any case the modern version, as applied to the legal system, is commonly understood to relate to the right to a speedy trial and primarily to the rights of defendants.

There is, however, a larger meaning. That is the entitlement of the nation to bring criminals to justice as swiftly as circumstances and protection of individual rights will allow. Anyone who has practiced law across the system knows that the wheels often grind slowly, for a variety of good and/or unavoidable reasons: (1) there are too many cases for the criminal courts to handle; (2) legal processes over the decades have become laden with complicated rules of procedure and evidence that can lead to lengthy delays while difficult issues are briefed, argued, and decided; (3) lawyers sometimes find that their best strategy is delay and use motion practice, discovery and other tactics to drag cases out as much as possible to put off the day of reckoning; (4) judges in some cases are in no hurry to move cases to final decision. The erratic nature of judicial decision-making is discussed in horrifying detail in Noise, A Flaw in Human Judgment, by Daniel Kahneman (one of the creators of Behavioral Economics & Nobel Prize awardee), Olivier Sibony, and Cass Sunstein.

The core theory of the system is that the law applies equally to everyone, regardless of social status, wealth, or other circumstance. At least that was the case before Donald Trump came along. Trump is credibly alleged to have committed more serious crimes than any president in history. He has been impeached twice but never convicted because the Republicans in the U.S. Senate, once one of the world’s great deliberative bodies, put their loyalty to him above their oaths to the Constitution.

One of the results of the Trump crime spree has been that, once he left the White House and the ill-conceived DOJ policy that protects sitting presidents from indictment ceased to apply, multiple jurisdictions moved against him simultaneously. There is no evidence that the scheduling of the main four cases has been coordinated, adding to the arsenal of ludicrous claims by Trump that his attempt to run for another term has been interfered with. The situation has also contributed to Trump’s ability to file an unending stream of motions designed mainly to delay and to create multiple appeals to higher courts and, ultimately, to the Supreme Court that Trump almost certainly believes will eventually save him from accountability.

The judges in the various federal cases seem unable or unwilling to impose rigorous order on the process, with the result that the schedule for holding Trump accountable for his crimes grows longer by the day. The chaos in the multi-defendant Georgia state case, as reported by the Washington Post, is a perfect example of this. http://tinyurl.com/32kzbpus The judges are putting up with conduct from Trump and his counsel that would never be tolerated for other defendants and their lawyers. Trump has repeatedly violated court-imposed restraints on his conduct in and out of court largely without meaningful consequences for him. The Department of Justice and the Special Counsel seem curiously passive in response to these outrages.

I have speculated that the Supreme Court will find a rationale of some kind to keep Trump on the 2024 ballot in all the states. The various courts of jurisdiction over his criminal charges are abetting the risk that he may win the 2024 election, at which point all criminal cases will likely be halted. Trump will then pardon himself, an act utterly preposterous and at odds with the Constitution, and the case will proceed back up to the Supreme Court where, one fine day, the Court will have to make a last stand for the Constitution and democracy … or not.

While that is going on, Trump and the loons, racists, and fascists he will install in the federal government will proceed to dismantle the civil service and the other components of the federal system they fear so deeply. If, then, the Supreme Court, decides that Trump was not entitled to pardon himself, the response will be “so what?”  By the Trump will repeat the famous line, “you’ve made your decision, now enforce it.”

The only apparent way to prevent the takeover of the government by the anti-democracy anti-Constitutional Trump MAGA morons, other than rejecting him at the ballot box (more about that in a moment), is to move his criminal cases along to decision before the election, stop the interlocutory appeals (appeals are usually allowed after a final verdict, not repeatedly throughout the litigation), expedite the inevitable appeals and bring the issue of his criminality to a head. The chances of that being accomplished seem remote at best.

Regarding defeat of Trump in the election, I continue to believe that the supporters of the democratic approach to governance under the existing Constitution far outnumber the MAGA crowd of cultists who continue to believe Trump is some kind of savior of the “values” they hold dear. The question is whether those supporters will vote in sufficient numbers in 2024.

The media appear to be repeating the same mantra and obsession with Trump and Republicans that they exhibited during his 2016 campaign and presidency. The media cannot be ignorant of the impact on voters of their relentless coverage of Trump and recitation of polls claiming he has an insurmountable lead over President Biden. They are digging their own graves, along with the burial of democracy.

I remain mystified as to the relatively inert Democratic messaging network. The Republican-created information vacuum combined with the silence of the Democrats is leaving the field to Trump, potentially creating a sense of invulnerability as the courts allow his lawyers to exploit the legal system without meaningful consequence. No other criminal defendant in America would be permitted to attack publicly the courts, judges, witnesses and even juries with impunity. Yet Trump continues to do so while having the advantage of interlocutory appeals, massive media coverage of his every insane utterance, and the aggressive support of Republican elected officials throughout the country who fear loss of their jobs more than preservation of the republic.

Just yesterday, the DC Circuit full bench, without dissent, declined to interfere with the three-judge panel decision limiting Trump’s comments about witnesses and court staff. Trump will undoubtedly appeal to the Supreme Court. And on it will go in the many cases in which the courts have given him leeway that would never have been given to anyone else charged with the felonies he is facing.

I understand the political imperatives that make it important that the sitting president not appear to be “weaponizing” the government against Trump. There are other ways, however. Trump’s crimes were not committed in secret. He openly incited the attack on the Capitol on January 6 and the evidence of planning behind that day is now established. The Department of Justice has the advantage of having the law and the Constitution on its side. Those great tools of democracy are there not just to protect accused criminals but to deliver justice to the whole of society for crimes committed against the commons. What are we waiting for?