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Maddow Blog | On Trump’s inauguration day, the rule of law will take a blow

Midway through his second presidential inaugural address, Donald Trump made a curious vow about his plans for the justice system. “Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law,” the Republican said. “And we are going to bring law and order back to our cities.”

Under the circumstances, this was one of the new president’s most unfortunate promises. Part of the problem lay in the premise: Given that Americans have enjoyed a system of fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law for the past four years, there is nothing that Trump can “fix.” Moreover, when he talked about “law and order,” it was hard to overlook the fact that the president is the first convicted felon to ever serve in the Oval Office. (He has also surrounded himself with a group of allies described by presidential historian Douglas Brinkley as Trump’s “team of thugs.”)

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But the problem took on even greater significance when the new president followed up his “rule of law” rhetoric with a series of actions designed to undermine the rule of law.

  • Trump on January 6 granted sweeping pardons and commutations to criminals, including violent criminals who clashed with police officers. It reflected the Republican’s belief that he can incite a political mob, encourage it to commit acts of political violence, and then absolve those who break the law in his name from accountability.

  • He issued an executive order intended to end birthright citizenship, despite the language of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • Trump and his team have named Ed Martin interim US attorney for Washington, DC, which would be less notable if Martin were not a conservative activist who has served on the board of a group that supported and is considered to have supported January 6 suspects as a prominent member of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement.

On that last point, my colleague Lisa Rubin asked: “[I]If Trump can erase the text of the TikTok ban, what’s to stop him from doing so with far more consequences?”

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Given that the answer is “nothing,” it adds tragic context to the new president’s absurd assurances about “restoring the constitutional rule of law.”

Complicating matters are the Republican’s plans for the near future. On New Year’s Day, in an article that probably deserved more attention, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump plans to “test the limits of the law by enacting policies he knows are illegal or even unconstitutional in an effort to convince the Supreme Court to convince the Court, which is dominated by conservatives, to reach different decisions.”

In other words, the new American president is so indifferent to the rule of law that he is willing to ignore it knowingly, trusting that his ally Supreme Court justices – those who have already largely elevated the presidency above the law – will doing. help him create new laws that he likes more.

Will the United States ever be the same?

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This article was originally published on MSNBC.com

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