Wave 28 legal expert comments

Wave 28 redacted high-level prior role comments

Legal expert comments

Group Ideology In your words, what is the state of the rule of law in the United States right now? What is the single most important threat to it?
Federal judge Conservative The single most important threat to the rule of law currently is the law­less­ness of anti-ICE rioters and thugs who force­ful­ly interfere with our law enforce­ment officers who are doing their jobs. I have never seen so many people choosing to phys­i­cal­ly interfere with law enforce­ment rather than peace­ful­ly protest­ing, and politi­cians actually sup­port­ing that type of law­less­ness. I have seen the videos of these rioters driving their cars toward ICE officers, throwing rocks at ICE officers, using their vehicles to block access for ICE officers, etc. I hope that the people who have committed these acts will be brought to justice.
Federal judge Conservative Threatened. Lack of under­stand­ing of civics by adult population.
Federal judge Liberal State is very bad. Trump.
Federal judge Liberal Trump
Federal judge Liberal The President and Vice President of the United States is the single most threat to the rule of law, with the Supreme Court majority ranking a close second. After that, the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security are serious threats to the rule of law and our democracy. I under­stand you only wanted the single most threat, but it’s hard not to include the rest.
Federal judge Liberal The Rule of Law lacks pubic meaning and public advocacy. Unless the public under­stands the value of the Rule of Law and its meaning to each American’s daily life, the concept faces extinc­tion-just as public opinion polls suggest that many Americans have lost value placed in the concepts of democracy. I believe our founders counted on an engaged public in a common endeavor to build and maintain this republic, even though they dis­trust­ed voters. I feel across the Nation it is the trial courts that are most engaged in main­tain­ing the Rule of Law and are most under threat. As may arise on appro­pri­ate occasions, the bar, the courts, and insti­tu­tions have a duty to explain and support the concept and its important role in main­tain­ing a peaceful, trust­wor­thy, and pro­duc­tive society. If all public meaning and value of the Rule of Law is lost,then so are we.
Federal judge Liberal In serious danger due to the current President.
Federal judge Liberal The single greatest threat is Trump vs United States opinion of the Supreme Court decided with a President who has no norms, has little under­stand­ing of gov­ern­ment other than his self interest and is a patha­log­i­cal liar. The Principle of Trump vs United States may have been tolerable if the president was governed by something greater or more than “his morals” that law in the United States, or inter­na­tion­al law or treaties are not relevant. All of which reflects a mistaken belief by the Supreme Court that its immunity grant would not be mis­ap­plied or misused as a sword. Secondly, Citizens United has failed in its premise that money is speach. More aptly money is volume of speach, not an equiv­e­lent to con­ver­sa­tion or reasoned discussion.
Federal judge Liberal The nation is strong as is its com­mit­ment to the rule of law, but the current president presents the greatest threat in decades.
Federal judge Liberal We are very near to civil war
Federal judge Liberal We have lost respect for the sep­a­ra­tion of powers among the three branches of government.
Federal judge Liberal Lawlessness is rampant. The rule of law is on a precipice in the United States. The current lead­er­ship in the Executive Branch and the lack of lead­er­ship in the Legislative Branch are a double-fisted threat to the rule of law.
Lawyer Liberal Deteriorating. Donald Trump and those beholden to him.
Lawyer Missing ideology response Endangered. The president
Lawyer Liberal Largely intact, but threat­ened. The biggest threat is the freedom with which those with “bully pulpits” disparage judges, courts and the rule of law. This applies to elected officials of both parties, not just the current administration.
Lawyer Liberal Rapidly being lost due to Trump and his toadies.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is under serious threat because the president does not honor, or perhaps even under­stand, his “take care” oblig­a­tions under the Constitution.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is under serious threat. The survival of democracy is in question. The actions of the Trump admin­is­tra­tion to fail to follow court orders and to seek to change election rules or otherwise threaten the broad right to vote.
Lawyer Conservative over­reach­ing federal agencies
Lawyer Conservative The rule of law is under serious attack from both political parties now. Polarization has caused the elec­torate and Congress to be weaker than usual in keeping checks and balances even. The single greatest threat to the rule of law is the attack on the judiciary upon which we all depend for even-handed and non-partisan justice.
Lawyer Liberal We have a sig­nif­i­cant threat to the rule of law in the USA right now due to a president that only follows rules that benefit him. All other rules are to be dis­re­gard­ed when it suits him.
Lawyer Liberal Under serious threat. Trump and those who shelter under his political power to take political power themselves.
Lawyer Liberal Unrestrained executive power. The co equal branches of govt have yielded their power to the executive. No one is fighting for us.
Lawyer Liberal It is almost non-existent. Trump is the biggest threat, and congress’s unwill­ing­ness to check him.
Lawyer Liberal In crisis. Single biggest threat is Donald Trump.
Lawyer Conservative The single greatest threat to the rule of law is that the gov­ern­ment no longer can be expected to tell the truth.
Lawyer Liberal Poor. This President.
Lawyer Liberal The state of the rule of law in this country is being threat­ened by the current admin­is­tra­tion. The single most important threat is the executive branches’ refusal to respect the other two branches of government.
Lawyer Liberal The state of the rule of law in the United States is under threat from arbitrary executive action and the failure of the leg­is­la­ture and Supreme Court to con­sis­tent­ly enforce guardrails.
Lawyer Liberal The lack of respect for sep­a­ra­tion of powers and our system of checks and balances.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law in the US is under attack. The single most important threat to it is the current pres­i­den­tial administration.
Lawyer Conservative Threats by the president.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is threat­ened every day that Donald Trump is in office. He has no respect for any authority other than himself, and no concept of how America is supposed to function.
Lawyer Conservative The lack of respect by the Executive Branch to the Legislative and Judicial Branches, and the will­ing­ness of the Legislative Branch (at both the Federal and State Levels) to just go along with the Executive Branch. The biggest is when both the Executive and Legislative Branches attack the Judicial Branch.
Lawyer Liberal Dangerously at risk from an admin­is­tra­tion that fails follow the rule of law.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law in the US right now is being severely com­pro­mised. The single most important threat to it is Donald Trump.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is under extra­or­di­nary threat from the actions of the Executive and Judicial branch (primarily the Supreme Court) and the inaction of the Legislative Branch. What the law says and how it has been inter­pret­ed for decades, if not centuries, no longer matters. This admin­is­tra­tion does whatever it wants and concocts phony legal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion when pressed.
Lawyer Liberal There are serious threats but the majority of our local and state oper­a­tions are still closely aligned to our presume approach­es to the rule of law. There is a dif­fer­ence between what is made possible by breaches, chal­lenges, and threats and what actual occurs because of those breaches, chal­lenges, and threats. The federal political landscape and it’s chal­lenges and threats to the rule of law are grave and serious and are actively impacting state and local actions and policies but it is not clear that they have fully corrupted our systems to the point that rule of law is absent. The media and the lack of his­tor­i­cal per­spec­tive exac­er­bate the fear (even if the threat is real) and creates further chal­lenges to right sizing the rule of law on all levels through hyper­fo­cus on single activ­i­ties and little focus on sharing strate­gies to shore up current rule of law or undermine the corrosive effects of a political party, political admin­is­tra­tion, and corrupt or cowardly political officials. There are more people who believe in the rule of law than there are of those actively under­min­ing it or exploit­ing its den­i­gra­tion. Moreover, there is a lot of power held by those opposed to the current state of the rule of law. Political power is not the only power that matters and the rule of law is mean­ing­less when viewed solely or narrowly from the point of view of political actions. This is why my responses reflected what seems a con­tra­dic­to­ry stance. No I don’t think rule of law in America is gone. But yes I recognize it is seriously threat­ened and at risk because it is currently being under­mined and numerous bad actors are seeking to leverage this oppor­tu­ni­ty to further undermine or exploit the fear, insta­bil­i­ties power imbal­ances it is causing today. However I’m also aware that this is temporal and there have been many other instances in world and US history that demon­strate wild shifts in power. While I’m hopeful sanity, courage, and respect for the rule of law and our fellow Americans will return, I’m not naive to think the con­se­quence of a sig­nif­i­cant period without the rule of law or (probably more likely) further entrench­ment of the current policies adver­sar­i­al to the rule of law AT THE STATE AND LOCAL LEVELS will create an untenable situation or the dis­man­tling of the US democracy as it was intended or has been under­stood. Strategy to rewrite the rule of law with pro­tec­tions that don’t depend on people not pushing bound­aries is needed. That must happen across all three branches, and, no, I don’t think we nec­es­sar­i­ly need a ton of con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ments to do it.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is on a backslide. The biggest threat is con­sol­i­da­tion of wealth and power channeled by Citizens United into political pawns.
Lawyer Liberal In my view, the rule of law in the United States is resilient but under sustained strain. The con­sti­tu­tion­al archi­tec­ture still functions. Courts issue decisions that bind the political branches. Elections occur. Transfers of power, though at times tense, continue. Lawyers argue, judges decide, jour­nal­ists inves­ti­gate, and civil society organizes. Those are not trivial facts. Many countries have lost the rule of law far more quickly and far more quietly. But resilience should not be confused with invul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. We are expe­ri­enc­ing a period in which foun­da­tion­al norms—respect for insti­tu­tion­al roles, accep­tance of adverse rulings, com­mit­ment to truth, and restraint in the use of power—are eroding. The rule of law does not depend solely on written law. It depends on habits of com­pli­ance, mutual tol­er­a­tion, and a shared under­stand­ing that no one is above the law—not pres­i­dents, not judges, not cor­po­ra­tions, not activists. If I had to identify one over­ar­ch­ing threat, it would be the erosion of public trust in insti­tu­tions, espe­cial­ly the judiciary and the electoral system. When sig­nif­i­cant portions of the public believe: ‑Courts are political actors rather than neutral arbiters, ‑Elections are ille­git­i­mate unless their preferred side wins, ‑Law enforce­ment is selec­tive­ly applied based on ideology, ‑Or that con­sti­tu­tion­al outcomes are nego­tiable based on partisan loyalty, then com­pli­ance with lawful outcomes becomes con­tin­gent rather than prin­ci­pled. And once com­pli­ance becomes optional in the public mind, the rule of law shifts from a shared civic com­mit­ment to a trans­ac­tion­al tool. The rule of law ulti­mate­ly rests on something intan­gi­ble: legit­i­ma­cy. Courts do not command armies. Judges do not enforce their own orders. The system works because most people, most of the time, accept outcomes—even painful ones—as binding. That accep­tance is built on trust that the system, while imperfect, is fun­da­men­tal­ly fair. When leaders—across the political spectrum—undermine that trust for short-term advantage, they weaken the very structure that protects all of us in the long term.
Lawyer Liberal An unchecked executive branch that is headed by unprin­ci­pled political cronies of the corrupt President that has dis­re­gard­ed norms and insti­tu­tions, coupled with a Congress con­sist­ing of a lapdog majority party. The man­i­fes­ta­tions of abuse by this admin­is­tra­tion are too many to list here. I still have some, though dimin­ish­ing con­fi­dence, that norms will even­tu­al­ly be restored, but not anytime soon.
Lawyer Liberal Oligarchs
Lawyer Liberal The pro­gres­sive academic liberal elite that is brain­swash­ing younger gen­er­a­tions of students.
Lawyer Conservative State of rule of law: Under serious challenge Most important threats: (i) Administration’s use of the law to intim­i­date and punish political enemies; (ii) executive orders seeking to sanction law firms based on whom they represent
Lawyer Conservative The most important threat to the rule of the law is the ampli­fi­ca­tion of fringe voices to central parts of the national dialogue as a result of tech­nol­o­gy. National agenda should not be set by loud­mouths. That goes for both ends of the political spectrum. Members of the media are extra­or­di­nar­i­ly irre­spon­si­ble about what they choose to highlight. Many of your questions, and the proffered answers, were for­mu­lat­ed poorly because they are based on pre­sump­tions that aren’t nec­es­sar­i­ly true. I did my best. Let me give you my basic view so that you see where I’m coming from. That said, part of the poison in the country’s blood­stream now is the over­wrought reactions to him — please, use a little judgment to tell when he is in carnival barker or panderer mode and when he is actually serious. Trump should shut his mouth and stop saying stupid things — it isn’t even that hard to tell which are which. He doesn’t follow through on almost any of the silly things he says, and when he does and they aren’t upheld, he pretty much uniformly follows court rulings. So his running off at the mouth in his typical hyper­bol­ic fashion isn’t a threat to the rule of law, it’s just stupid logorrhea that makes him look silly. Courts slap him down and they should (with a qualifier below). As for some of your other questions, like firing Lisa Cook? He’s testing whether his Article II removal power extends to the Fed — you never know if you don’t try. I think he’s wrong but it’s a test case — that’s not a threat to the rule of law, it IS the rule of law. As for the pros­e­cu­tions of Democrats, welcome to my world of concern about politi­cized pros­e­cu­tions. I heard precious little about concern for the rule of law from the academic estab­lish­ment when Obama’s DOJ under his “wingman” Eric Holder went after Fox News reporters or his IRS went after the Tea Party. You don’t have to like Fox News or the Tea Party — I certainly have issues with both — but Obama’s admin­is­tra­tion had no business going after them. Or when Biden’s DOJ went after all manner of political opponents. Or Jack Smith sub­poe­naing the phone records of the Speaker of the House and getting a con­fi­den­tial­i­ty order to keep Johnson from finding out, on grounds that Johnson was flight risk (look it up — this actually happened). Trump’s admin­is­tra­tion going after his political opponents is more of the same, he’s just less coy about it. I said earlier that the district judges were checking him when he is wrong. But you also might want to check the Trump Administration’s success rate when it has appealed the district court rulings that went too far. This isn’t rocket science — the plain­tiffs choose the forum they think they can win in, they file where they can find an obliging and ide­o­log­i­cal­ly sympatico judge, and if Trump loses (which happens often) but thinks he can win on appeal, he appeals — and his people have chosen their appeals pretty well. Does the fact that the district judges get reversed on appeal on a not infre­quent basis mean they are a danger to the rule of law? I don’t think so. (Though they really should stop issuing ex parte TROs — in my expe­ri­ence, judges should hear both sides before acting.) What I think is absolute­ly a threat to con­sti­tu­tion­al gov­er­nance is the almost unbe­liev­able self-enrich­ment this admin­is­tra­tion has been doing. (Not that prior admin­is­tra­tions were so pristine, either — much of the federal bureau­cra­cy turns out to have been a massive slush fund. But Trump’s people are par­tic­u­lar­ly shameless.) And for some reason the cor­rup­tion doesn’t get quite as much attention as the stuff the literati choose to caterwaul about. Such as supposed threats to the rule of law. Which brings me to my last obser­va­tion, which is that surveys like this are part of the problem because they suggest that what Trump is doing is unique and new. It’s not, it’s just louder and cruder, and it’s aimed at your ide­o­log­i­cal allies. I am a lawyer who is concerned that the country is being polarized for profit and ide­o­log­i­cal advantage, and even more perturbed that the insti­tu­tions that should be providing some sort of adult input are them­selves grinding ide­o­log­i­cal axes. I think everyone needs to grow up, starting with the President. But also including college pro­fes­sors designing surveys.
Lawyer Liberal Those enablers of Trump.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is under grave threat currently. The most important threat is the failure of the system of checks-and-balances among the three branches. The Congress has essen­tial­ly abdicated its role in providing mean­ing­ful checks on the Executive, and the Executive refuses to recognize the Judiciary as a co-equal branch of government.
Lawyer Liberal In Chaos.….Trump is the greatest threat.
Lawyer Liberal influ­enced and ambiguous; threat­ened by ideology and ambition
Lawyer Missing ideology response A lack of democracy due to Citizens United and progeny
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is under threat in this country like never before, thanks to the extra­or­di­nary law­less­ness and nar­cis­sism of President Trump and his appointees and the utter failure of Congress to stand up for its pre­rog­a­tives. Only the courage and vigilance of the federal judiciary protects us from becoming another Hungary or Venezuela. I don’t think the public ade­quate­ly appre­ci­ates how desperate the situation is because they have never seen anything like the way this admin­is­tra­tion flouts and weaponizes the legal system — people can’t grasp how bad things could become.
Lawyer Liberal The state is not good– The biggest threat was Supremes giving Prez so much immunity and the citizens united letting cor­po­ra­tions give so much to political campaigns
Lawyer Liberal “The accu­mu­la­tion of all powers, Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hered­i­tary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pro­nounced the very def­i­n­i­tion of tyranny.” With a Supreme Court that has been politi­cized and dumbed down, and a Congress that will not protect even its own authority from Presidential over­step­ping, our system of checks and balances has broken down.
Lawyer Liberal Executive overreach — ignoring or actively skirting court orders at any and all levels.
Lawyer Liberal Right now the rule of law is under attach by the current pres­i­den­tial admin­is­tra­tion. The single most important threat is Congress’ complete abdi­ca­tion of inves­ti­gat­ing the current admin­is­tra­tions clear vio­la­tions of the law … whether it’s attach people’s freedom of speech, arresting them without warrants, violating the emol­u­ments clause, partisan attacks on elected officials, harassing of federal judges, etc. The list goes on. The most dangerous threat right now is the President’s campaign to attack free and fair elections by attempt­ing to “nation­al­ize” them, whatever that means. I fully expect him to use ICE to harass minori­ties at the polls in swing states.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law in the United States is hanging by a thread. The most acute threat is the president and his enablers (including in Congress and the judiciary). The most important threat is the lack of political courage needed to reform our system and to codify political norms to prevent would-be total­i­tar­i­ans from exer­cis­ing unchecked power.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is under challenge by the current admin­is­tra­tion far beyond any prior admin­is­tra­tions. Pressure is brought on any judge that does not rule in the manner the current admin­is­tra­tion demands and the President himself publicly derides any judge that does not rule as he wishes. This pressure under­mines the foun­da­tion of the rule of law which is that the law must be applied with con­sis­tent judicial prin­ci­ples by our courts without influence of political or economic pressures.
Lawyer Liberal Christian nation­al­ism. Use of law enforce­ment as political tool for posturing or for punishing enemies; threats to speech. I have seen all this spread from Texas to federal government.
Lawyer Liberal The pres­i­den­cy and its abuse of the justice system for political goals.
Lawyer Liberal Rule of law is hanging on by a threat. The Trump Administration and its enablers in Congress are the gravest threat to the rule of law. They act as if they may never find them­selves out of power.
Lawyer Liberal Trump, MAGA, and his Congressional acolytes who have abrogated their Constitutional oblig­a­tions. Everything Trump does, 24/7, imple­ment­ing Project 2025, and his personal agenda based on greed, power, contempt for the rule of law, the US Constitution and his pres­i­den­tial oath and obligations.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is under constant attack. The attacks on the judiciary for rulings the admin­is­tra­tion does not like as well as the wanton disregard of court orders are of most concern to me. An inde­pen­dent judiciary is the most important guardrail in a func­tion­ing democracy.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is under enormous attack in the United States right now, causing great peril to our democracy. The single most important threat is the extreme con­ser­v­a­tive viewpoint that “might is right” and takes prece­dence over the rule of law. This delib­er­ate intent to destroy the con­sti­tu­tion­al prin­ci­ples that set forth the rule of law is the single most important threat, and it is magnified by President Trump’s utter law­less­ness and cynical disregard for the rule of law. But unfor­tu­nate­ly, it is a viewpoint that is also held by a large band of his like-minded advisers and extensive leading members and thought leaders in his party, who each day are taking delib­er­ate actions to undermine the rule of law.
Lawyer Liberal Erosion of the public per­cep­tion that the rule of law is a fun­da­men­tal concept that creates the necessary pre­con­di­tions for a func­tion­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic, cap­i­tal­ist society
Lawyer Conservative The rule of law is better now than it was under the Biden admin­is­tra­tion, but it still hasn’t recovered from the insti­tu­tion­al and sys­tem­at­ic abuse inflicted on it by prior Democrat Party admin­is­tra­tions. There are still woke ide­alogues and corrupt indi­vid­u­als in that party who are intent on per­vert­ing the rule of law to their own ends. The hyper­par­ti­san­ship on the extreme Left is dangerous, ignorant, and real.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law has been sub­stan­tial­ly weakened by the unlawful, irre­spon­si­ble, and incom­pe­tent acts of Pres. Trump and his admin­is­tra­tion. The single most important threat is Pres. Trump.
Lawyer Liberal I am a Democrat and have been since 1978, before I was able to vote. I abhor Donald Trump. However, I do not think the rule of law is under siege. Recall that FDR — whom Democrats like me idolize — pressed for myriad bills that, upon pro­mul­ga­tion, were deemed patently uncon­sti­tu­tion­al; hatched a plan to “pack the court” and add justices to SCOTUS; breached the time-honored tradition of serving only two terms as POTUS (leading to the 22A); and, forced US citizens (who happened to be of Japanese descent) into con­cen­tra­tion camps. Those were all serious “threats to the rule of law,” and the republic withstood. It will again. Hand-wringing doesn’t help. Voting does.
Lawyer Liberal Not good and in peril because of Trump.
Lawyer Liberal Extremely threat­ened by an Administration that does not respect the norms of our con­sti­tu­tion­al and legal system.
Lawyer Liberal There is a sense that the pop­u­la­tion no longer trusts the legal system to deliver impartial results. The sense that every­thing s driven by political concerns corrodes a pillar of self-gov­ern­ment. President Trump and his appointees seem willing to act as they wish, without regard to settled law or even court orders., and intim­i­date others as much as possible. Coarse and insulting comments about judges amplify the level of distrust. The Supreme Court has enabled this by abusing the emergency docket, and Congress has allowed it to happen by refusing to act on anything that could restrain a runaway executive. As a con­se­quence, trust in the DOJ has dimin­ished, respect for the Supreme Court is about nil, and even the notion that law should be impartial is no longer accepted as true.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is threat­ened. The Supreme Court granted the President absolute immunity from pros­e­cu­tion for almost any action they would take while in office, which the current president is using to take or authorize actions that violate the law, including inter­na­tion­al law. The single most important threat to the rule of law is the Supreme Court’s apparent adoption of the unitary executive theory and failure to hold the executive account­able for actions that violate the Constitution, federal statutes, or both.
Lawyer Liberal Dumpster fire
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is under great threat. The Executive’s repeated refusal to comply with court orders is a great threat (perhaps the single most important).
Lawyer Liberal Trump
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law in the United Stares is under serious threat right now. The single most important threat is a President who feels no need (legal or normative) to consult with or abide by the rec­om­men­da­tions or decisions of other parts of government.
Lawyer Liberal The state of the rule of law in the US is threat­ened by Trump and Bondi because they are making most, if not all, decisions based on fur­ther­ing their political agenda.
Lawyer Liberal Breakdown and ignoring of of the written and unwritten rules that create insti­tu­tion­al and struc­tur­al checks and balances among the branches of gov­ern­ment including by the press and public against the gov­ern­ment. Without the guardrails, the system will veer of course and appears to be actively steered off course.
Lawyer Conservative Extreme par­ti­san­ship on both sides. Media is no longer trusted by anyone.
Lawyer Liberal The author­i­tar­i­an admin­is­tra­tion in power right now and the reluc­tance of those with checks and balances powers to uphold their con­si­tu­tion­al obligations.
Lawyer Liberal Public ignorance of how the rule of law has his­tor­i­cal­ly worked and should work
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is threat­ened by all three branches of the federal gov­ern­ment. It is threat­ened by the Executive Branch which shows disregard for the law in many of its actions, espe­cial­ly regarding Presidential Executive Orders. It is threat­ened by Congress which will not pass needed leg­is­la­tion, espe­cial­ly in the immi­gra­tion law area. It is threat­ened by the Judicial Branch itself, which does not ade­quate­ly rein in executive action, and does not enforce its orders in a timely manner.
Lawyer Liberal Imperilled. Acquiescence by Congress and public officals; apathy by most citizens
Lawyer Missing ideology response I under­stand “the rule of law” as used in this survey as the U.S. con­sti­tu­tion­al order the way it was explained to me in high school and on School House Rock. But, that order has never actually existed. The rule of law is a piety, an aphorism.
Lawyer Liberal The rule of law is threat­ened and under siege, and the most important threat is the lack of legal pro­fes­sions in the gov­ern­ment who are willing to stand up to dangerous executive leaders.
Lawyer Liberal Under severe threat. Executive con­tin­u­al­ly pushing the bounds of authority.
Lawyer Conservative Good. Biggest threat is Leftist defiance.
Lawyer Conservative Imperiled.
Lawyer Liberal We are dan­ger­ous­ly close to losing the rule of law right now. The single most important threat is apathy and political division.
Lawyer Liberal In flux. Threat: Mr. Trump
Lawyer Conservative Precarious. Growth of jurisdiction,size,and dis­cre­tion of federal policing agencies
Lawyer Conservative Attempts to com­pro­mise the Supreme Court’s inde­pen­dence by adding more judges, term limits, juris­dic­tion­al restric­tions, and other like ini­tia­tives to curb its power and prestige.
Lawyer Liberal It is rapidly declining towards author­i­tar­i­an­ism. The project 2025 archi­tects and those who are imple­ment­ing it.
Lawyer Liberal Your list of American States, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico leaves out parts of the U.S. geo­graph­ic frame. [poten­tial­ly iden­ti­fy­ing infor­ma­tion redacted]
Lawyer Liberal Presidential, DOJ, and ICE lawlessness
Lawyer Liberal It is auto­crat­ic. The absence of leg­isla­tive ini­tia­tive or push back
Lawyer Liberal In his second term, President Trump is the most important threat to the rule of law in the U.S., and he is straining mightily to undermine the rule of law. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have let him get away with it frus­trat­ing­ly often. But many other insti­tu­tions are mostly holding firm, including lower federal courts, state courts, and the political and admin­is­tra­tive branches at the state and local levels. In spite of Trump’s efforts, elections remain free and open.
Lawyer Liberal Trump’s refusal to respect the balance of powers, proac­tive­ly flaunting his disregard for the law, which forces an astro­nom­i­cal number of legal chal­lenges to actions that are clearly unlawful, and Trump’s unwill­ing­ness to abide by court decisions once there is a legal decision. This is com­pound­ed by the Supreme Court’s will­ing­ness to pre­ma­ture­ly reverse thought­ful decisions by the lower courts through the use of the shadow docket.
Lawyer Liberal At the top of the Administration (and anything that falls within its sights), abysmal. At lower lev­el­s/­day-to-day in [redacted position]s, AUSAs are still doing their job and appear to be focused on facts, not political favor. As for the threat, I cannot identify just one: The Administration’s per­sis­tent and repeated spreading of false infor­ma­tion; per­sis­tent attempts to divide our citizens; demo­niza­tion of nonci­t­i­zens; general mean-spirit­ed­ness; and crack­downs on free speech and protest, combined with public apathy and unwill­ing­ness to inves­ti­gate the accuracy of Administrative claims before reaching opinions, col­lec­tive­ly pose an enormous threat to the rule of law. But if I had to choose just one thing, I would say the attempts to ger­ry­man­der districts and dis­en­fran­chise voters.
Lawyer Conservative The rule of law in America is only as good as the people respon­si­ble for per­form­ing their indi­vid­ual roles without prejudice or political or personal favoritisms. A sig­nif­i­cant threat to the rule of law was the Biden admin­is­tra­tion’s failure to uphold and enforce existing immi­gra­tion laws by opening the Southern border to millions of indi­vid­u­als who had no right to come here in that manner, including two million “got-a-ways.” Now, in an effort to find and remove some of those who came here illegally the rule of law is threat­ened by the actions of some elected officials encour­ag­ing broad civil resistance.
Lawyer Liberal Using the Department of Justice to inves­ti­gate political opponents or critics.
Lawyer Conservative The public in general pri­or­i­tizes a par­tic­u­lar result in cases rather than pri­or­i­tiz­ing a decision in accor­dance with the rule of law. This pref­er­ence plays out politically.
Law professor Liberal Donald Trump is the most important threat. He has created a cult of per­son­al­i­ty and the Republican Party is no longer a working party — it is the instru­ment of the President. The state terror campaign against immigrants
Law professor Liberal The President and Congress.
Law professor Liberal I adhere to Ernst Fraenkel’s “Dual State” theory of dic­ta­tor­ship, in his eponymous book about the Nazi regime. In everyday matters, the rule-of-law state (“Normative State”) endured; but it had layered on it a “Prerogative State” where the executive could impose his will and override the rule of law. We certainly aren’t in a dic­ta­tor­ship, but Trump 2.0 is upping the pre­rog­a­tive-to-normative ratio. The single most important threat to the rule of law is the acqui­es­cence of a large part of the American public, and increas­ing public indif­fer­ence to whether a con­sti­tu­tion­al and rule-of-law democracy endures.
Law professor Liberal Most of the questions here relate to federal law and public law. That’s fine, and to the extent that’s the frame of reference, I think the state of rule of law is in serious jeopardy, and the most important threat is a socio­path­ic president who does not care about anyone but himself, and has sur­round­ed himself with syco­phants and yes-people. That said, as someone who studies state and local gov­ern­ment, I think that this survey leaves a lot of what affects/constitutes the rule of law in the U.S. out of the picture, which makes it hard sometimes to answer these questions when private law and state and local gov­ern­ments also matter in the scheme of things.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under threat from multiple direc­tions, the most serious of which is the Trump Administration.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under active and very dangerous attack by the Trump admin­is­tra­tion for the reasons listed in your survey. The Supreme Court is also endan­ger­ing the rule of law through (a) Trump v. U.S., granting Trump absolute immunity even with respect to the most severe attack mounted against the con­sti­tu­tion­al order since the Civil War–namely, Trump’s self-coup attempt on Jan. 6, 2021; (b) abuse of the emergency docket by failing to balance the equities in lifting lower courts’ stays of Trump admin­is­tra­tion actions, even when those actions are fla­grant­ly illegal; © making up con­sti­tu­tion­al law where nothing in the text, history, or precedent justifies this, so as to effec­tive­ly sideline the leg­isla­tive branch, enforce a con­cep­tion of the president as having untram­meled power to extort money from private busi­ness­es and uni­ver­si­ties, to take bribes, and reduce the DoJ to an instru­ment of personal vengeance; and (d) making up con­sti­tu­tion­al law (as in the sub­jec­tive major questions and non­del­e­ga­tion doctrines) so as to appro­pri­ate a veto power over leg­is­la­tion and reg­u­la­tions that the Court doesn’t like.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under extra­or­di­nary threat, and the single most important threat is Donald Trump’s ability to act with impunity because Congress will not restrain him and because of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
Law professor Liberal Donald Trump
Law professor Liberal Donald Trump, his admin­is­tra­tion, and ICE are the single most important threats to rule of law in the United States.
Law professor Missing ideology response Out is under threat, but guardrails are still mostly holding. The Trump Admin. is currently the greatest threat, espe­cial­ly if they disregard con­sti­tu­tion­al court orders.
Law professor Liberal Dire. The president.
Law professor Liberal Inability of the courts and Congress to check the executive branch. This results in cor­rup­tion, bias and diminu­tion of indi­vid­ual rights
Law professor Liberal We are in serious danger of losing whatever legal guardrails we have. The single greatest threat is President Trump
Law professor Liberal The rule of law in the United Statues is in very bad shape. The pop­u­lace’s belief in the rule of law in the United States is at an all time low in my lifetime. The single most important threat to the Rule of Law in the United States is the lack of due process citizens have in inter­ac­tions with federal law enforcement.
Law professor Liberal Both Congress and the Supreme Court have abdicated their role to serve as a check on executive authority, allowing the president to essen­tial­ly rule by decree.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under attack and President Trump is the single most important threat to it.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is unevenly practiced at present. In most cases, most of the time, it remains robust. The greatest threat to the rule of law is the use of federal agencies to target political opponents of the Trump administration.
Law professor Liberal Executive overreach and con­sol­i­da­tion of executive power
Law professor Liberal Rule of law in the United States in under great strain. The single most important threat is Donald J. Trump whose self-centered, small-minded, short-term approach to power elevates what benefits him per­son­al­ly, even when those benefits jeop­ar­dize the rule of law. The U.S. Supreme Court has not helped, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the way it has undercut the legit­i­ma­cy of the lower courts, crit­i­cized judges, used the emergency docket to empower the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, and estab­lished a “rule for the ages” giving the President broad immunity. But the Supreme Court’s threat to the rule of law is merely deriv­a­tive. Donald Trump remains the most serious threat to the rule of law in the modern world.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under serious threat at the federal level due to attacks on judicial inde­pen­dence and efforts to create a unitary executive with strong and perhaps largely uncon­strained powers. These devel­op­ments have been enabled by an increas­ing­ly polarized political discourse that entrench­es dif­fer­ences among the elec­torate rather than building a sense of common purpose and shared fate. I would say that disregard of the rule of law at the highest levels of our federal gov­ern­ment are the single most important threat, but this disregard is enabled by a toxic political environment.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is in a pre­car­i­ous position, primarily due to President Trump’s lawless actions.
Law professor Liberal Pretty poor. The current admin­is­tra­tion has little regard for the rule of law, and is openly per­vert­ing it in the interests of an auto­crat­ic and far-right administration
Law professor Liberal The rule of law in the US is in a state of rapid dete­ri­o­ra­tion. It’s hard to name a single most important threat, though. In some sense, the President is the ultimate cause of this dete­ri­o­ra­tion. But the President couldn’t have this effect on his own. His advisors and appointees; the Supreme Court; and majori­ties in Congress are necessary to allow him to undermine the rule of law. So maybe I should say that the most important threat is the collusion of powerful people across the federal gov­ern­men­t’s branches in under­min­ing the rule of law.
Law professor Conservative The politi­ciza­tion of what should be neutral law enforce­ment. You asked a lot of questions about Trump, but I’m also concerned that the Justice Department for political reasons refused to bring, much prosecute any cases for violating federal law during anti-Israel protests, and that mayors in a dozen or so cities refused to allow the police to help uni­ver­si­ties enforce local anti-tres­pass­ing and related laws.
Law professor Liberal I believe we are facing a dire threat to the rule of law, more so than in any other time I have practiced law.
Law professor Liberal Executive branch and its overreach
Law professor Conservative The rule of law in the United States is threat­ened. The single most important threat is executive branch disregard of judicial orders and legislation.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is at a tipping point because public officials, espe­cial­ly in the current admin­is­tra­tion, lack integrity.
Law professor Conservative No different than under Biden
Law professor Liberal Donald Trump and MAGA politicians
Law professor Conservative Unchecked immi­gra­tion and asylum fraud
Law professor Liberal The Trummp admin­is­tra­tion’s failure to follow court orders on a regular basis.
Law professor Conservative Very pre­car­i­ous Undermining of the equal right of all citizens to par­tic­i­pate in free and fair elections
Law professor Conservative It is deeply imperiled. The most important threat is the right’s lack of concern about Donald Trump’s lawless actions and rhetoric.
Law professor Liberal 1) Endangered. 2) The Executive Branch’s disregard for the legal limits on its authority and for judicial efforts to enforce those limits.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law in the United States is at a pre­car­i­ous tipping point moment. The Trump admin­is­tra­tion, through both rhetoric and actions, is the most important threat.
Law professor Liberal Seriously endan­gered. Disregard by Trump Administration.
Law professor Liberal It is very much at risk and currently being under­mined with reg­u­lar­i­ty. The biggest threat is the total lack of account­abil­i­ty for the brazen cor­rup­tion and illegality.
Law professor Liberal Terrible. The single most important threat to the rule of law in the United States is Donald Trump.
Law professor Liberal Establishment of lying as the pre­vail­ing cultural norm on questions of policy, political account­abil­i­ty, or enforce­ment of civil or criminal law.
Law professor Liberal It turns out that the equi­lib­ri­um in which other elites (courts, congress, corporate America) would coor­di­nate to control the pres­i­den­t’s abuse of power depended on a shared belief about other elites doing so that has utterly collapsed.
Law professor Conservative Good. Double standards
Law professor Liberal State of rule of law in U.S. right now is terrible. Donald Trump’s hold on the Republican Party is the single most important threat to it.
Law professor Liberal There is very little rule of law left. Biggest threat is Trump Impunity autho­rized by US Supreme Court
Law professor Conservative Rule of law is fragile. Most important threat is decades-long dis­en­gage­ment of citizens from demo­c­ra­t­ic delib­er­a­tion and everyday talk with neighbors in favor of empow­er­ing federal courts and admin­is­tra­tive agencies to decide questions of political, economic, and socio­cul­tur­al practice.
Law professor Conservative The single greatest threat is that young people are encour­aged, from a young age, that their personal ideals of justice or “equity” should trump policies that have been enacted as law through our demo­c­ra­t­ic political system. This extends through legal education, thanks to the Boomers who took over and even­tu­al­ly dominated the dis­ci­pline. The Left engages in more of this through the edu­ca­tion­al system, which def­i­nite­ly leans Left, but the far Right has followed suit, as evidenced by January 6th. Trump is more a symptom than a cause. The lawfare against him has backfired by rad­i­cal­iz­ing him and his base, and his attempts at lawfare are going to have the same effect. Hopefully rea­son­able people will realize that a plu­ral­is­tic society cannot be governed this way. The Rule of Law is more about form and process than about substance, and we need to return to that understanding.
Law professor Liberal The biggest threat to the Rule of Law right now is the failure of the Supreme Court to place mean­ing­ful limits on the executive and the exec­u­tive’s failure to abide by limits placed on it by lower courts.
Law professor Liberal The state of the rule of law is terrible. The single greatest threat is the failure of Congress (both parties) to provide a check on the President as required by the Constitution.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is hanging on by a thread. Undermining election integrity and planting seeds to (1) threaten voters at polls with the presence of ICE and (2) impose onerous iden­ti­fi­ca­tion require­ments on women are part of the larger project to suspend elections guarantee a Republican party “win” even if the votes don’t reflect that win. That is the greatest current threat.
Law professor Liberal The US has slipped out of the category of democracy and has become an electoral autocracy. The single most important threat is the overreach of the President and Article II more broadly under the unitary executive theory. This, coupled with the Supreme Court’s immunity decision and its current failure to check key abuses, leaves the country vul­ner­a­ble to growing autocracy and breakdown of the rule of law. The existence of a class of people (undoc­u­ment­ed, for sure but more broadly, non-citizens) who are sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly excluded from core due process guar­an­tees is emblem­at­ic of what could be done to vul­ner­a­ble com­mu­ni­ties and persons more broadly down the line. While the lower federal judiciary is holding strong, pro­tect­ing impartial and inde­pen­dent justice, the Supreme Court has to often reversed those courts on the shadow docket, harming both the rule of law and the public’s ability to access impartial and fair justice more broadly.
Law professor Liberal Dire. The Republican Party.
Law professor Liberal Black money donations to political action committees.
Law professor Liberal war hawks launching unpro­voked attacks on other nations to engage in regime change (e.g., Venezuela, Iran, Gaza (Palestine), Ukraine).
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under serious threat, but is not in imminent danger of collapse. The single biggest threat is Donald Trump’s per­son­al­ist and Caesarist view of the presidency.
Law professor Liberal under increas­ing threat by both the current admin­is­tra­tion and an economic elite that supports the admin­is­tra­tion and belives the law does not bind them
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is neither a rule, nor a law. It “lives” in a pro­fes­sion­al culture that puts certain actions (for example, openly boasting about attempts to victimize critics) firmly off limits, that places oblig­a­tions on public servants (such as pros­e­cu­tors or gov­ern­ment officials) to apply the law neutrally and even handedly, and that supports important civil society actors (such as uni­ver­si­ties, law firms and media companies) to reflect those same values and to protest when they are violated, without fear of ret­ri­bu­tion. Every one of these com­po­nents is under threat or already com­pro­mised and that fact is blind­ing­ly obvious. The question is whether this “system” which is not a system, can regrow those virtues. The obstacles to that are hor­ri­fy­ing­ly great. Once one has pretended that election fraud is rampant, that January 6th was not an insur­rec­tion and that the Justice Department is not run by political hacks, one must continue to deny those facts going forward. The threat of sys­tem­i­cal­ly dis­ad­van­tag­ing one par­tic­u­lar political view through ger­ry­man­der­ing, and executive and leg­isla­tive actions, the authors of whom *admit* that is their primary goal, means that the ballot box is no longer a remedy on which we can rely.
Law professor Liberal Not very good. Arrest and depor­ta­tion and killing without due process of law
Law professor Liberal Lawyers who implement Presidential direc­tives without regard to ethical duties and the rule of law are the single most important threat. Presidents will always have the wrong motives. The current state of the rule of law is “under great stress, with courts largely holding, and political appointees playing with treason.”
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under threat by the federal admin­is­tra­tion and an inactive congress. In my state the rule of law is under threat by an over-zealous, lawless state leg­is­la­ture. The judges–both federal and state–are holding the line. Single most important threat? Ambition and money in politics
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under attach like never in my lifetime. The biggest threat is President Trump, combined with a supine Congress, plus a Supreme Court which sub­scribes to the risible “unitary executive” theory.
Law professor Liberal Under severe chalenge. Executive overreach and leg­isla­tive timidity, and judicial unrestraint
Law professor Liberal President Trump is the single most important threat because of his disregard for the norms that have governed the Executive branch.
Law professor Liberal The state of the rule of law is dire, the united states is a back­slid­ing democracy and the single most important threat to it is the Supreme Court of the United States
Law professor Liberal I am extremely concerned that the second Trump term has done damage that is irrepara­ble or at a minimum not reparable for gen­er­a­tions. I believe our (former?) allies no longer believe that we have the rule of law. I see the U.S. as well down that path currently and in a very short period of time. I am extremely concerned about access to truthful news. The executive branch will­ing­ness to disobey court orders is ter­ri­fy­ing. I would seriously consider moving out of the country but for the feeling of oblig­a­tion to stay and try to remedy things.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under attack and often losing. The threat is President Trump, his admin­is­tra­tion and elected republicans.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is in a very vul­ner­a­ble state. Thankfully there is a large cadre of lawyers who are willing to hold the line, including many who identify as Republican.
Law professor Liberal The US gov­ern­ment and its insti­tu­tions are very large. In thousands of settings, the rule of law is being followed by admin­is­tra­tors, lawyers, judges, etc. However, under espe­cial­ly the second Trump admin­is­tra­tion, this bedrock aspect of American gov­er­nance is facing sustained attack. The single most important threat to the rule of law right now is the executive branch–the small group of advisors around Trump that push him to take extreme positions on the law, move the Overton window in public on what they can lawfully do, and dare SCOTUS to disagree with them.
Law professor Liberal It is in a horrible state. The single most important threat is hard to narrow down, but the gestapo police killing American citizens, dis­man­tling of federal insti­tu­tions, ignoring court rulings, and racism (birthright cit­i­zen­ship, DEI threats, reverse racism claims) top the list.
Law professor Liberal Increasingly weak. The most important threat is the political apparatus created by Donald Trump.
Law professor Liberal The current federal admin­is­tra­tion, and specif­i­cal­ly the president, does not under­stand or respect its role in the con­sti­tu­tion­al structure and does not feel con­strained by anything outside of himself. Congress has abdicated its role and the Supreme Court is not con­strain­ing the president either. We have no effective checks and balances.
Law professor Conservative Joe Biden’s admin­is­tra­tion was the greatest threat to the rule of law probably in American history. The use of lawfare against President Trump and members of his admin­is­tra­tion to try to influence the 2024 election and to imprison and bankrupt them on political grounds is chilling. Bringing criminal pros­e­cu­tions against his lawyers for providing advice was unprece­dent­ed. Pressuring social media companies into censoring speech by private indi­vid­u­als and banks to debank people for their speech and religious beliefs is clearly an effort to end-run the Constitution. The double-standard in the excessive criminal pros­e­cu­tions of non-violent January 6 par­tic­i­pants versus the rioters during the BLM riots in summer 2020 was egregious. And to top it off with the in-your-face pardons of Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family as well as the prospec­tive pardons of people like Anthony Fauci (who appears to have almost certainly perjured himself repeat­ed­ly before Congress) illus­trat­ed the degree of the double-standard of justice that prevailed during the Biden Administration. The weaponiza­tion of the FBI for political purposes, lying to the FISA Court, the Steele dossier, the use of the FBI to inves­ti­gate and intim­i­date parents at PTA meetings, pro-life pro­tes­tors, and the Catholic Church. The double-standard in how the DOJ handled Trump’s clas­si­fied papers in Mar-A-Lago versus Biden’s clas­si­fied papers in his garage. Fortunately the Trump Administration appears to be serious about trying to restore reg­u­lar­i­ty and pull back on the use of law enforce­ment agencies and others to intim­i­date and silence critics. They also tried to blackball any of Trump’s lawyers from future legal practice. Given the thug­gish­ness of the Biden admin­is­tra­tion and its allies in NYC, Atlanta, and elsewhere, I have reluc­tant­ly concluded that the only way we are going to restore the rule of law is through a tit-for-tat strategy against the per­pe­tra­tors of this injustice. Otherwise the Democrats will adopt the playbook of the Biden Administration for all future elections and gov­er­nance. Use the power of the federal gov­ern­ment and your allies in the state and federal gov­ern­ment to prosecute your opponents, silence those who criticize your policies, and throw your leading electoral opponents in jail. Thank goodness the Biden lawfare and thug­gish­ness was repu­di­at­ed at the ballot box. The Biden Administration really did have us slipping into a Banana Republic-style system of two-tiered justice based on one’s political beliefs and fealty to Biden. I am now opti­mistic that the Trump Administration is serious about reversing that and that the repu­di­a­tion of Democratic lawfare tactics in November 2024 might get us back on track so that the Democrats do not do the same thing when they return to power.
Law professor Liberal It is in grave danger. The greatest threat arises from Congress’s failure to exercise its own author­i­ties to constrain pres­i­den­tial abuses of power.
Law professor Liberal not great! The biggest threat is a federal secret police force deter­mined to violate the rights of Americans, including by murdering them, in the name of eth­ni­cal­ly cleansing the nation.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law in the U.S. is under severe threat and is rapidly eroding. The country is no longer a con­sol­i­dat­ed democracy; it is clearly a com­pet­i­tive author­i­tar­i­an system akin to Hungary or India. Donald Trump poses the most direct threat to the rule of law, but he is only able to pose such a threat because of the collapse of the will of the other branches of gov­ern­ment to constrain him.
Law professor Liberal Worst in past 100 years.by a sig­nif­i­cant margin, even compared to Trumps’ first term. Trump.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under multiple & repeated direct threats from the Administration, abetted by a compliant Congress, with limited & belated resis­tance from the Supreme Court.
Law professor Liberal Poor. Trumps threats to undermine elections. Billionaire money.
Law professor Liberal arbitrary and unchecked power by the president
Law professor Liberal Grievously under threat, but still resilient. The single greatest threat is that the leg­is­la­ture has refused to employ any of the con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly pre­scribed account­abil­i­ty mech­a­nisms against the executive.
Law professor Liberal The state of the Rule of Law is poor. The single most important threat is partisan executive branch overreach.
Law professor Liberal The single most important threat to the rule of law is the current pres­i­den­tial admin­is­tra­tion, which knowingly violates the law, refuses to comply with court orders, violates civil rights, weaponized the justice depart­ment against the pres­i­den­t’s perceived enemies, instructs gov­ern­ment lawyers to bring legal actions against various entities without evidence, and fails to comply with legally required processes and pro­ce­dures. There have been few con­se­quences for these actions. Now the admin­is­tra­tion is under­min­ing faith in the election process, so there may never be con­se­quences for these actions. It isn’t clear that we have the rule of law right now in this country, at least with respect to con­straints on gov­ern­ment overreaching.
Law professor Liberal Significantly threat­ened. Single threat: Trump administration.
Law professor Liberal It is under grave threat. The single most important threat is the failure of co-equal branches to rein in an out-of-control executive. The lower courts have been doing their job, but the Supreme Court has mostly been cowardly and the Congress is com­plete­ly absent.
Law professor Liberal It has been declining with increas­ing partisan polar­iza­tion and bit­ter­ness for a few decades, but has rapidly accel­er­at­ed during the second Trump Administration. You didn’t ask about the use of the office to enrich himself, and Congress’ refusal to challenge that. That too is an extra­or­di­nary threat to the rule of law.
Law professor Missing ideology response Single most important threat is reor­ga­ni­za­tion of one of the two major parties around a charis­mat­ic leader espousing author­i­tar­i­an values
Law professor Missing ideology response It is sig­nif­i­cant­ly threat­ened but compared to other countries there are still rel­a­tive­ly strong norms and pro­tec­tions. The single biggest threat is that financial power is con­cen­trat­ed in a way that enables the author­i­tar­i­an ten­den­cies of whoever is in power.
Law professor Liberal Threatened
Law professor Liberal An unbound executive is the single greatest threat to the United States.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law in the United States is rapidly crumbling. The Republican party, led by Donald Trump, is the greatest threat to the rule of law.
Law professor Conservative There are many threats to the rule of law, but the very greatest threat to the rule of law is the ideology of the Republican Party.
Law professor Liberal Rule of law is in danger from many members of the current federal admin­is­tra­tion and some members of the admin­is­tra­tions in some states.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law and faith in gov­ern­ment are under assault. Sustained and coor­di­nat­ed efforts to undermine sub­stan­tive and pro­ce­dur­al legal safe­guards, and sustained and coor­di­nat­ed efforts to eliminate or erode essential gov­ern­ment institutions.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is under threat but it is not dis­ap­peared. How the Supreme Court will respond I think remains to be seen. Single most important threat is the public no longer expecting political actors to respect rule of law.
Law professor Liberal President Trump and his enablers are the most important threat.
Law professor Liberal uncertain. Trump
Law professor Liberal Political pressure and threats to judges.
Law professor Missing ideology response Your question on original meaning shouldn’t have been framed as a binary I think the rule of law is, as a concept, narrower than how you’ve framed it in some of the questions. The rule of law is IMO properly con­cep­tu­al­ized as having 8 elements: 1. Generality. Roughly, there must be rules, cog­niz­able sep­a­rate­ly from (and broader than) specific cases, such that the rules can be applied to specific cases, or specific cases can be seen to fall under or lie within them. 2. Notice or publicity. Those who are expected to obey the rules must be able to find out what the rules are. 3. Prospectivity. The rules must exist prior in time to the actions being judged by them. 4. Clarity. The rules must be under­stand­able by those who are expected to obey them. 5. Non-con­tra­dic­tori­ness. Those who are expected to obey the rules must not simul­ta­ne­ous­ly be commanded to do both A and not‑A. 6. Conformability. The addressees must be able to conform their behavior to the rules. 7. Stability. The rules must not change so fast that they cannot be learned and followed. 8. Congruence. The explic­it­ly pro­mul­gat­ed rules must cor­re­spond with the rules inferable from patterns of enforce­ment by func­tionar­ies (e.g., courts and police). The biggest threat to the rule of law right now is best under­stood as a problem of generality–rules are being applied against some and not others. While that’s long been a problem in the US (it’s a by product of, e.g., pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al dis­cre­tion), the uneven appli­ca­tion seems to be polit­i­cal­ly motivated.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is threat­ened by Trump’s political appointees who are blindly loyal to him and who disregard the Constitution in order to serve Trump.
Law professor Liberal It is seriously endan­gered and con­tin­u­ing to backslide, as rec­og­nized by many expert scholars in the field and orga­ni­za­tions dedicated to measuring rule of law and democracy. The greatest threat is a federal executive that has no respect for it, enabled by a Congress that largely refuses to exercise its con­sti­tu­tion­al powers to check the exec­u­tive’s abuses.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law in the U.S. is under serious threat. If you interview average people on the street, they’ll tell you the law doesn’t apply to wealthy and powerful people. The single biggest threat to the rule of law is the major lack of account­abil­i­ty for elected officials and wealthy people who break the law or behave unethically.
Law professor Liberal There is a full-frontal assault on the rule of law, with an attempt to turn the legal system into the personal weapon of the President, and there is a great deal of com­plic­i­ty in that by many important actors. However, we started from a strong point, and so the collapse cannot happen all at once. The single most important threat is the weaponiza­tion of the DOJ.
Law professor Missing ideology response The rule of law in the United States is in shambles. There are many threats, but I think the two biggest threats are cor­rup­tion and a weak Congress–I’m not sure which is doing more damage right now.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is generally sound, but very unstable in high profile instances of political salience.
Law professor Liberal Seriously imperiled.
Law professor Liberal It is under threat. The most important threat is craven enabling by powerful people and institutions.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law is des­per­ate­ly under attack in the U.S. The DOJ has been hijacked by the Trump Administration, and putting unqual­i­fied judges and pros­e­cu­tors in place can have long-term ram­i­fi­ca­tions. Threats to our fair elections can have exis­ten­tial effects.
Law professor Liberal The single most important threat is President Trump bullying the SCOTUS to do whatever he feels is correct. It is so hard to teach law students that we have a rule of law when they are con­stant­ly seeing the President do whatever he wants to do.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law in the US right now is under sig­nif­i­cant threat.
Law professor Conservative The rule of law is under threat because of Trump and his minions.
Law professor Liberal The rule of law in the United States is hanging by a thread. There is a strong legacy of rule of law that gives us hope to emerge from the current situation, but the rule of law is under active attack by the executive branch of the federal gov­ern­ment. The leg­isla­tive branch is doing nothing to address the situation, and the judiciary, so far, has been inad­e­quate to prevent sig­nif­i­cant erosion to the rule of law. The single most important threat to the rule of law is the admin­is­tra­tion of Donald J. Trump.
Law professor Liberal Very poor. Congress’s failure to restrict or limit the executive branch is the most important threat.
Law professor Liberal Donald Trump is the biggest threat. We are in a con­sti­tu­tion­al crisis.
Law professor Liberal Rule of law in the United States is being eroded rapidly. The single most important threat is the unwill­ing­ness of the Courts and Congress to effec­tive­ly utilize their con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly provided checks and balances.
Law professor Liberal President Trump is using the Department of Justice and FBI to carry out an agenda focused on enriching himself in terms of power and wealth and punishing those who try to constrain his cor­rup­tion. Transforming the DoJ into Trump’s personal legal attack dogs (who also protect him against liability or exposure — see Epstein Files) is despi­ca­ble and is destroy­ing the rule of law in our country. Likewise trans­form­ing the FBI (and Homeland Security) into Trump’s personal police force and using it to terrorize perceived enemies, stir up fear and division in American cities, and insulate Trump and his cronies against any inves­ti­ga­tion of their own mis­con­duct pokes hole after hole into the rule of law in this country. I am sickened and saddened that rule of law has already — in just one year of this admin­is­tra­tion — been decimated to this extent. if it doesn’t stop soon, we will be a nation where might, not law, reigns supreme.
Law professor Liberal Executive branch overreach under­min­ing the checks and balances from Congress and the judiciary.
Law professor Liberal Rule of law has dete­ri­o­rat­ed sub­stan­tial­ly in the United States. The country no longer has a fully free and open democracy. The single most important threat to it is the persistence/reanimation of white supremacy, currently man­i­fest­ed in such activ­i­ties as expanded and abusive executive power.

Potentially iden­ti­fy­ing infor­ma­tion and positions are redacted.