The rapidly disappearing Constitution by Barry Rosenbaum

Makes you want to holler. Makes you want to scream. THIS IS NOT NORMAL!! We are being hit with so much outrageous, unconstitutional, unconscionable, and downright ugly and mean shit that you have to struggle not to become numb and not to succumb to paralysis. As one who has lived my life in the law, to see it so thoroughly ignored and trashed is demoralizing to the nth degree.

I worked as an attorney for the Santa Monica City Attorney’s Office for over thirty years. I had many different roles during my tenure. One constant was appellate litigation in either the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit or the California Court of Appeals, Second Appellate Division. Many of my cases involved difficult issues of constitutional law. Our office never wavered from the foundational principle that the U.S. Constitution governed all of the City’s actions and that adherence to its provisions was sacrosanct.

Without question, all levels of government are subject to this foundational document — from the city to the state to the federal. While there can certainly be disputes about the meaning and applicability of constitutional requirements, once a court has ruled and all avenues of review have been exhausted, the court’s decision is binding and establishes a legal precedent.

Now we have an administration that abhors the rule of law and disregards the Constitution and the courts enforcing it with seeming impunity. The list of reprehensible and illegal actions seems to grow daily. A consistent thread is Trump’s utter disregard for the constitutional rights of immigrants, students, law firms, universities, political opponents, scientists, museums, libraries, broadcasters, and the LGBTQ+ community. In short, any non-MAGA institution or individual is suspect and not to be accorded heretofore bedrock fundamental rights.

Currently, the judiciary is pushing back against this onslaught of illegality. In May, the Trump Administration lost over 95% of its federal cases. However, most of these cases are preliminary rulings that have yet to reach the Supreme Court in a meaningful way. And, given the Supreme Court’s conservative majority and their demonstrated willingness to override long-standing constitutional doctrine, this success rate is sure to falter. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett have, at times, shown a modicum of flexibility. But, as reflected by recent rulings of the Court, we know that we cannot count on them to save our democracy. It is up to us.

Since my retirement, I have spent a significant portion of my time doing progressive, but certainly mainstream, political work and writing. Given our current political reality, I am now assessing possibilities that I previously would have considered unthinkable and totally paranoid.

When I travel overseas, should I take a burner phone because my cell phone might be searched upon my return, and my email and texts — which are sometimes critical of the current administration’s actions — could be viewed with suspicion? If I travel with my regular phone, should I delete social media apps that contain political content? What risk does active participation in demonstrations present? Will my political activism call attention to myself and my family in a way that could be detrimental? I recognize that I have a rather privileged status, unlike most of the individuals who have been singled out thus far. Ultimately, however, with laws of no import, we can all become targets at the whim of this administration.

Notwithstanding all of this, I intend to continue with my activism. As Timothy Snyder, a renowned scholar on authoritarianism, has advised us, one of the principal strategies that citizens must use to support democracy is not to obey in advance. We have a First Amendment right to demonstrate in public spaces and must not acquiesce in this government’s move to abrogate this bedrock constitutional principle. The same holds for the right to publicly raise grievances with the government without fear of retribution.

Our next opportunity to collectively show our strength is on Saturday, June 14th. On that day— the day that Donald Trump wants tanks in the street and a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday— I will be joining with hundreds of groups and millions of people who will be protesting throughout the United States and the world.

We are the ones who must act to save our democracy. We must show up in such numbers that we can not be ignored, and we absolutely must throw out the MAGA Republicans and retake the House and the Senate in 2026, by such margins that we don’t have to wait until 2028 to stop this horrific destruction of our government and its guiding principles. This horror must be stopped. It falls on us collectively to do it.