[solicitation and discussion about this statement is at
The Final Battle against Donald J. Trump: Discussion re Alabama lawyers against Donald Trump]
Statement of Alabama lawyers against Donald Trump [draft]
The undersigned Alabama lawyers urge the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2024 election and express the following in support of our urging the defeat of Donald Trump.
American Bar Association Task Force for American Democracy
In August 2023 the American Bar Association, pronouncing that "our American democracy is in peril," created a Task Force for American Democracy, the mission of which was to: (i) bolster voter confidence in elections by safeguarding the integrity and non-partisan administration of elections, and by providing support for election workers and officials; (ii) educate Americans on democracy and the rule of law and why they are foundational to every aspect of American lives; and (iii) suggest ideas to the American people for improving and strengthening our democracy and our elections. A year-long set of Task Force activities were set forth in the link
Our Work (americanbar.org).
In August 2024 the ABA House of Delegates passed a policy adopting a “Statement of Principles” for protecting democracy (
ABA House of Delegates passes policy adopting “Statement of Principles” protecting democracy) and the Task Force issued a
Through extensive research, community engagement via listening tours and numerous consultations, the Task Force has identified key issues undermining our democratic institutions. Notably, the rise of misinformation, the normalization of political violence and a growing disillusionment with democratic governance have emerged as critical concerns. Our observations indicate that these issues are exacerbated by a polarization that has infiltrated the very fabric of our society, making reasoned, bipartisan dialogue more crucial than ever
. . .
I invite you to view the current analysis as a call to action for all legal professionals to reinforce their commitment to justice, equity and democratic integrity.
Qualifications regarding this statement
In making this statement, we are greatly affected by the polarization of the country, the rise of misinformation, inabilities and impairments of agreement on facts, and difficulties of evaluating things that are uncertain and that call for opinion .
In our profession, we endeavor to diligently attune ourselves to the truth or falsity of alleged facts, the motivations and intentions of human beings, and assessing likelihoods about things that are uncertain.
In making this statement, we are applying our knowledge and understanding we think we have about the law (including the Constitution) and the U.S. political system,
This statement discusses several subjects and gives our opinions concerning the subjects, which are the basis of our urging that Donald Trump be defeated in the 2024 election.
I. Non-acceptance of the 2024 election results
For four years the United States has been buffeted in the extreme about whether the 2024 Presidential election results will be accepted by the candidates and the American people.
Much effort has been made by some parties to achieve the goal that the 2024 Presidential election results will be accepted by the candidates and the American people.
Also, there are parties who want a situation in which the 2024 Presidential election results will not be accepted by the candidates and the American people, and these parties have been working for four years to create that situation.
In our opinion, Donald Trump is the reason why the United States is in a situation that the 2024 Presidential election result will not be accepted by him if he does not win the 2024 election, and that such result will not be accepted by tens of millions of voters who support Donald Trump.
In our opinion, virtually all blame is on Donald Trump that the United States is in foregoing situation, and in our opinion the United States would not be in such situation if Donald Trump had done things otherwise for the past four years.
In our opinion, this situation that has been created by Donald Trump has created great danger and risk for the United States and its democracy.
In our opinion, if Kamala Harris is elected President, and Donald Trump is defeated, that will go a long way to fixing the dangerous situation that Donald Trump has created regarding election results being accepted or not being accepted by candidates and voters.
On the other hand, if Donald Trump is elected President, our opinion is that the dangerous situation that Donald Trump has created regarding election results being accepted or not being accepted by candidates and voters will persist and continue as a big problem for democracy in the United States.
II. Rule of law and unchecked power
History is filled with the quest of human beings for power.
While power can used to benefit others, there is great risk that power will be sought for selfish and self-seeking reasons in the extreme, in which case the power seeker cares not about whether others are benefitted or harmed by the power-seeker's exercise of power except to the extent the power-seeker makes self-interested calculations about how benefit or harm to others helps or hurts his or her power seeking.
Further, the more that power seeking is self-serving, the more inclined the power seeker is to lie, deceivve, manipulate, and coerce others in order for the power seeker to increase his or her power.
Also, the more that power seeking is only self-serving, the more that more power is desired.
Further, the more power seekers are only self-serving, the more they are prone to obtain the service of other persons who are similarly self-serving in their own power-seeking, and who are similarly inclined to lie, deceive, manipulate, and coerce others in order to increase the power of the person they are serving and help their own power-seeking as well.
The Founding Fathers knew well about power seeking by human beings, the risk of power seeking being self-serving in the extreme to the detriment of others, and the extreme perniciousness of what self-serving power-seekers will do for more power, and the Founding Fathers gave great attention in Constitution they drafted to checking the powerful drive of human beings to gain and increase their power.
American history has 250 years of history of power seeking by human beings in various situations; there have been many accumulations of great power; and United States has gotten through the same.
Donald Trump is unprecedented in American history in his unchecked power seeking that, in our opinion, is selfish in the extreme. In our opinion, Trump has deceived millions of Americans into believing that there is nothing that Trump has ever done that is wrong, and that Trump will be able to immediately fix America's many difficult problems, when, in fact, these many difficult problems will take arduous work by the President, Congress, and the American people overcome.
Kamala Harris has her own power-seeking motivations, but, in our opinion, those will be checked in the regular ways that 250 years of power-seekers in the United States have been checked.
Special mention of Department of Justice
As regards the rule of law and the danger of Donald Trump's unchecked power-seeking, special mention is made of role of the Department of Justice. There is a tension between the DOJ being part of the President's executive branch of government and at the same time being independent of the President in acting to enforce the rule of law against the President. There has been experimentation with Independent Counsels and Special Counsels. This tension came especially to the fore in Watergate, and it is a tension that has lurked for decades.
The rule of law has been shaken to its core as regards January 6th case and the documents case that have been brought against Trump.
In our opinion, Donald Trump is likely to destroy any independence of the Department of Justice if he becomes President, and this will do lasting damage to the rule of law in American democracy.
III. Trump's substantive issues
Donald Trump has substantive issues, such as the economy and inflation and immigration, that, in the minds of millions of voters, weigh in favor of voting for him.
In our urging that Donald Trump be defeated in the 2024 election, we are of the opinion that the truth about such substantive issues is not as Trump's millions of supporters have been deceived into believing by Trump, and they are in no way reason for voting for Donald Trump when weighed against the harms, damages and risks that are discussed above if Donald Trump is elected President.
We discuss in this statement Donald Trump's top issues of the economy and inflation and immigration.
A. Economy and inflation
There is a great financial and psychological malaise of the American people connected to prices being much higher compared to four years ago.
The factors that have brought about the higher prices are complex, and governmental actions taken during the past four years were far from being black and white in their rightness or wrongness for Americans, and, as is frequently the case, such actions were in the face of uncertainty about what would exactly result from the actions.
COVID-19 put the United States in an unprecedented dire condition in 2020, and huge amounts of governmental spending was agreed to be needed to support the economy until the pandemic was gotten under control.
This governmental spending, and other factors involved with the pandemic, ultimately resulted in inflation, and the inflation has been bad.
No one knew what would have happened to the economy if there had not been the huge amounts of governmental spending to support the economy until the pandemic was gotten under control.
Donald Trump has deceived millions of Americans into believing that the Democrats have been evilly intent on destroying the United States during the past four years with the governmental actions that have been undertaken to extricate the country from the dire condition it was in, and that if Trump had been President during such four years, the United States, under his leadership, would have magically gotten through the pandemic without being subject to the tension between governmental spending keeping the economy afloat and the tendency of the governmental spending to cause inflation.
Understanding the complex factors that have brought about the much higher prices compared to four years ago leads to questions about what can and should be done going forward to lessen the financial and psychological malaise of the American people connected to prices being much higher compared to four years ago.
Conventional economic wisdom about how to bring down inflation is for interest rates to be raised and that there be a slowdown in the economy, and maybe even a recession is needed to get control of inflation. This happened in the late 1970's when interest rates were raised to near 20%, the economy went into a recession at the start of 1980, which lasted a number of months until the American economy pulled out of the recession.
In the inflation that started in 2021, the governmental response has been to raise interest rates, and since then the country has been looking out for whether the economy would have a "soft landing," (i.e., inflation being gotten under control without a recession). The country is still poised on that concern.
Donald Trump does not want Americans to understand the foregoing and wants Americans to be stupid about the economy and inflation and believe the Democrats caused the inflation and, if Trump had been President, the country could have gotten through the pandemic without being affected by the trade-off between governmental spending to keep the economy going and tendency of that to cause inflation.
The governmental and societal challenges in this regard are in the face of evolving conditions that add difficulties.
One evolving condition is that of artificial intelligence and the uncertainty and anxiety that AI has introduced regarding people's jobs.
Second is the long term effects of remote working that has come about from the pandemic. Employees have come to like the freedom and flexibility of remote working, and employers are hard at trying to evaluate the effects on productivity.
The selfish power-seeking Trump has deceived millions of Americans into believing that, if he is elected President, he will magically fix their psychological and financial malaise caused by the inflation and other factors.
B. Immigration
Burgeoning global population, widespread local wars, poverty, food insecurity and climate change are causing large scale migrations of people around the world. Developed nations, including the United States, have been under intense pressures from this and will continue under immense pressure for many years to come.
We believe that America's immigration laws need comprehensive reform, and that has been held hostage by the political extremes..
Kamala Harris says, if she wins, she will immediately seek passage of the bipartisan bill that Trump told the Republicans in Congress that they should not pass.
While illegal immigration is a very serious problem for the United States that needs addressing, we do not believe the difference between a Trump administration warrants voting for Trump in the face of the extreme risks to the United States of an unchecked power-seeking Donald Trump
IV. Trump's unchecked power seeking
Having discussed the foregoing two substantive issues favoring Trump, we make further discussion about the dangers of Donald Trump's unchecked power-seeking if he is elected President.
Most people have a lot of information for making their own evaluations about how selfish and self-serving Trump is in his power-seeking and the extent to which Trump cares or does not care about others in Trump's exercising his power and how much Trump lies, "cons", deceives, manipulates, and coerces others in order to increase his power and the extent to obtained the service of persons who are similarly selfish and self-serving in their own quests for power and who similarly inclined to lie, "con", manipulate, and coerce others in order to increase Trump's power as well as their own power.
In making that evaluation, one may think about Kamala Harris in comparison and her power-seeking, how selfish and self-seeking it is in disregard of others and what lying, "conning," deceiving, manipulating and coercing of others Kamala Harris is willing to do.
Most successful politicians are ambitious and want power and their care for others in how they exercise their power is variable. They are, however, subject to restraints in how they accumulate their power.
Kamala Harris has been a very ambitious politician and has sought to increase her power. One could even say that, in 2019, Kamala Harris did her share of political pandering to advance her ambitions.
Trump has persuaded his followers that he made enormous personal sacrifice in running for President and he was not at all motivated by selfish and self-serving power-seeking.
In our view, Trump, in running for President, was almost exclusively motivated to serve himself and by lust to be the most powerful human being on the planet.
Further, Trump has succeeded in an unprecedented way to free himself from shackles and constraints on his power seeking.
Take, for example, when all his advisors were telling him he lost the 2020 election and he should accept that he lost. Trump, in his lust for power and to keep power, did not accept the constraint of his defeat in the election, undertook to overturn the 2020 election and got his minions to aid him in doing that.
Trump was willing to risk that he engaged in criminal activity in seeking to overturn the 2020 election. If Trump wins the 2020 election, he will be validated that there is nothing that can constrain his power-seeking, and no one around him if he wins will dare suggest to Trump that he cannot or should not do anything that Trump wishes to do.
There is no predicting what Trump will wish to do if he is elected, or what will motivate him about what he wishes to do. Trum may decide he wants mass deportation to take place, or he may decide he does not wish for mass deportation to take place. He may decide that he wants to impose huge tariffs to be imposed to show he can do whatever he wants, even if the economy is very badly affected, and any Republican Senator who votes to override his tariffs will be mercilessly punished by Trump.
Maybe Trump will want to use his Presidential position to benefit his businesses and increase his family's wealth. There will be no advisor around Trump who will suggest he has a conflict of interest in exercising his Presidential power in that fashion.
Maybe Trump is angry about the embarrassment that Zelenski and Ukraine caused Trump in the form of the first impeachment, and Trump will withdraw support for Ukraine for that personal reason and Trump will not care whether such withdrawal of aid to Ukraine is or is not in the best interest of the United States.
Hopefully voters will think about the unchecked power-seeking by Trump that they will enable if Trump is elected President in 2024.
V. Conclusion
In our opinion there was deleterious situation of politics and governance in United States that existed in 2016 that resulted in Trump being elected in 2016 and that situation is largely unchanged in 2024.
In our opinion, the United States learned and experienced with Donald Trump in his four years as President that Trump abjectly failed to do positive things that he could have done for the politics and governance of American because Trump was selfishly interested only in his own power and increasing that power, and Trump instead has greatly damaged politics and governance in America, and Trump is much worse for America than the deleterious situation of 2016 that continues in 2024 and that is need of much work by the President, Congress and the American people to make improvements.
