While we are waiting for the final decision from Judge Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia, I want to present some thoughts on the least resolved of the case's many issues, the hard parts the judge will be pondering. Actually, one hard part: trust. But I need to tell you a little about the case to make the trust issue clear.
No country in the European Union has stricter immigration laws than Hungary. Nowhere in the bloc is it more difficult to attain refugee or protection status: EU statistics show exactly 10 people received either in 2025. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is proud to claim that there are "zero" refugees, or as he generally refers to them, "illegal migrants," in his country. That was how he framed his immigration policies and their impact during a November 2025 White House meeting with US President Donald Trump.
It's not only law firms and legal departments that are adopting GenAI systems without fully understanding what they can and cannot do - court systems may also be tempted to adopt these tools to short circuit workloads in the face of limited resources. And that poses some risks and concerns to the rule of law, a notion that hinges on accuracy, fairness, and public perception.
It began on the first day of his second term, with instructions to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to end the "weaponisation" of prosecutorial power. But with those first strokes of his pen, President Donald Trump instead launched a year of dramatic changes to the Justice Department, the government body responsible for enforcing federal law in the United States. Traditionally, the Department of Justice has cultivated an aura of "prosecutorial independence".
Courts play an important role in authoritarian regimes. They legitimize the actions of despots by declaring them "legal" or "constitutional." They ensure institutional compliance with the regime's rules. And they make politically unpopular decisions that align with the authoritarian's goals while giving the authoritarian political distance from those goals. Quite simply, you can't instigate a strongman takeover of a constitutional democracy without having a robust judicial power that's willing to play along.
In our hour, 2026 now looms as the critical moment, the time in which we will continue to have free and fair elections or not, will continue to have courts that uphold the rule of law or not, will continue to enjoy constitutional rights of citizenship and free speech and free press or not. For all Americans, very much including for journalists, the question for the year ahead is whether we will rise to the occasion.
Europe's leaders cannot stop talking about democracy. President Emmanuel Macron says he wants to kickstart a democratic resurgence, and Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, has warned of an axis of autocratic states targeting liberal democracy in Europe. Having promised to fight for what she calls European values, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has just announced a new democracy shield and a Centre for Democratic Resilience to prevent foreign interference and deal with external threats.
As a senior citizen on Medicare and SNAP, I feel like I can speak to both issues. Our country is now being run by a narcissistic president. He does not care about the poor, working people, homeless people or poor immigrants just trying to make a living. He is letting these people go hungry, and he is trying to take away medical assistance for them, and deporting almost all immigrants.
Perryman said the stakes go beyond courtroom victories. The real challenge is demonstrating that the public truly holds the power to counter and often stop the White House's seemingly unstoppable march toward authoritarian rule. "The real thing for us was, how are we going to show people that you actually still get to be in charge in your country-the people get to be in charge," Perryman told moderator and host of the podcast Pod Save America, Jon Favreau.
My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom. President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench.
I spent more than 20 years leading U.S. government-sponsored justice projects in countries with weak to nonexistent democracies, including Albania, Mongolia, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Republic of Georgia, and Armenia. Those of us who have worked in nations like these don't have to imagine what it looks like when a place's leaders demonstrate no regard for the rule of law. What we've seen overseas looks a lot like what we've started to watch unfold in this country over the course of the past 10 months.
It's beneath [Graham] to say what he just said. He knows, as well as I do, there is no legal authorization for these strikes. There isn't, Himes started off by saying. He continued: If Lindsey Graham and other Republicans want to go the route of saying it's okay to kill people illegally, just so long as the American public supports it,' the American public needs to really think that through, you know? There will be a Democratic president someday.
As he was transported to La Sante prison in Paris on Tuesday, Nicolas Sarkozy posted a message brimming with defiance on X, writing It's not a former president of the republic who is being jailed this morning, it's an innocent man. A court of appeal will eventually give its view on the veracity of the second clause of that statement. But unfortunately for Mr Sarkozy, the drama and significance of his fall cannot simply be wished away.
"For decades, the guiding tenet for those working at the department was to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. Many believe that's no longer possible," Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection, which organized the letter, said in a news release on Monday. "They're being asked to put loyalty to the President over the Constitution, the rule of law, and their professional ethical obligations," she said. "We're seeing the erosion of the Justice Department's fabric and integrity at an alarming pace. Our democratic system cannot survive without the primary institution that enforces the law."
For decades, the American Bar Association has championed a rules-based, liberalized system of international trade. This commitment is grounded in two core values: advancing the rule of law and enabling U.S. lawyers and firms to serve clients wherever they do business. Yet many countries maintain regulatory barriers that block or burden U.S. lawyers' and law firms' ability to operate abroad through the most effective structures and relationships.
Good morning. I've spent the week talking to business leaders and policymakers who've gathered in New York for Climate Week, the UN General Assembly and assorted events on the sidelines, including our own. The mood is generally somber, with growing concern about America's commitment to free speech, science, rule of law and remaining a hub for global talent. A few themes have emerged in terms of how CEOs are shifting their strategies.
Since the start of the Trump II reign, and the attack on the rule of law that coincided with that, it's been clear that Biglaw wasn't going to be our savior. When d irectly confronted with unconstitutional Executive Orders targeting firms on Trump's list for retribution, more than twice as many major law firm were willing to promise the president nearly a billion dollars in pro bono payola for conservative causes or clients as were willing to fight the EOs in court.
As the Trump administration has fired federal employees and top officials for political reasons, blocked millions of dollars Congress appropriated and flouted legal norms, several legal outfits are providing crucial pro bono and other help to many individuals hurt by Donald Trump's authoritarian actions, say lawyers involved and ex-prosecutors. Lowell & Associates, Democracy Defenders Fund and the Washington Litigation Group, are among the leading legal groups with clients battling
The United Kingdom, the originator of the cherished Common Law legal tradition, has a proud reputation of judicial integrity. Recent changes to the global balance of power may limit the reach of the UK's courts, but their reputation for incorruptibility remains undimmed. In global rankings, the UK comes 15th out of 142 countries for overall rule of law, with judicial autonomy noted to be particularly strong according to the World Justice Project's 2023 Rule of Law Index.
President Trump told reporters that the operation happened "over the last few minutes, (we) literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat." While few may mourn the alleged 11 narco-traffickers who perished in the attack, all Americans should be concerned about how our military is being cut loose from its legal moorings by what appears to be the abandonment of the rule of law from the very top of our national chain of command.
Final arguments have concluded in the national security trial of the pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong. Government-picked judges are retiring to consider their verdict in the case, seen internationally as a crucial test of the rule of law in the city. Lai, 77, has been in prison since 2020, when he was charged with two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of conspiracy to publish seditious material.
The lawsuit challenges the government's unconstitutional campaign to pressure law firms and attorneys into silence. Through executive orders, blacklists, canceled contracts and inflammatory public statements, the administration has tried to turn the justice system into an instrument of partisan loyalty.
