A majority of the Harvard Law School faculty sent an unusual letter to their students over the weekend warning that the “rule of law” now faces grave threats under the Trump administration.
The professors, writing in their individual capacities and not as representatives of the elite law school, voiced their concerns that “legal precepts and the institutions designed to uphold them” are starting to buckle. They referenced President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting individual law firms for retribution due to their legal work challenging Trump or his administration.
“While reasonable people can disagree about the characterization of particular incidents, we are all acutely concerned that severe challenges to the rule of law are taking place, and we strongly condemn any effort to undermine… basic norms,” they wrote.
The letter has been signed by about 90 professors, including roughly two-thirds of the school’s tenured faculty. The Harvard Crimson, which first reported the letter, noted that the signatories included most of the law school’s top leadership, though not its interim dean, John C.P. Goldberg.
“It’s very clear the strategy on the part of the administration is to pick off institutions one by one.”
– Andrew Manuel Crespo, professor of public interest law
Andrew Manuel Crespo, a public interest law professor who signed the letter, told HuffPost it was “remarkable” to see so many legal scholars in agreement on any issue, but they all recognized a moment of “extreme threats.”
“It’s very clear the strategy on the part of the administration is to pick off institutions one by one, whether that’s Paul Weiss or Columbia University or Skadden,” Crespo said, referencing two law firms and one school that chose to cut deals with the administration after Trump threatened them financially.
Crespo went on, “When these institutions are targeted individually, the pressure is overwhelming, and we’re seeing a number of them fold. Across the profession, lawyers and professors are realizing, if we don’t stand together, we will all fall separately.”
Earlier this month, Trump crafted an executive order aimed at stripping Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and its attorneys of government contracts and security clearances, jeopardizing the firm’s relationships with its clients. Paul Weiss agreed to provide $40 million in pro bono legal work to the administration’s causes in exchange for the president dropping the…
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