At a time of potential danger to American democratic norms and institutions, it is more urgent than ever for scholars to highlight the risks to our system of government. In this spirit, Bright Line Watch brings together a group of political scientists to monitor democratic practices, their resilience, and potential threats.
Featured report
Erosion of the rule of law in Trump’s second term
From February 19–March 6, 2026, Bright Line Watch and the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law conducted their first joint survey of legal experts — federal judges, lawyers, and law professors — alongside Bright Line Watch’s frequent surveys of political scientists and the public.
The results provide the most detailed picture to date of experts’ assessment of the state of the U.S. legal system during Trump’s second term. The federal judges, elite lawyers, and academics in our sample perceive a significant erosion of the rule of law since Trump returned to office, including politicized law enforcement, a dysfunctional separation of powers, and executive-branch overreach. Legal experts generally view the erosion of the rule of law as more severe than the public currently perceives it to be.
March 2026
Bright Line Watch in the media
After Trump’s Victory, Republicans Trust the Election System Again
by Charles Homans at The New York Times, 12/17/2024
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by F.D. Flam at Bloomberg, 10/23/2024
‘Same playbook’: Voting falsehoods mire US election
by Daniel Funke at AFP, 10/23/2024
Opinion | America Is Playing With Fire
by Thomas B. Edsall at The New York Times, 10/23/2024
Republicans and Democrats Believe Their Candidate Will Win—By a Lot
by Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones, 10/17/2024
Where Trump Goes, Violence Follows
by Francis Wilkinson at Bloomberg, 10/17/2024
How House Republicans and Fox teed up a major threat to democracy
by Philip Bump at The Washington Post, 7/11/2024
‘The Supreme Court gets the stakes of presidential immunity backward
by Philip Bump at The Washington Post, 7/01/2024
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