Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.
You know, as governor of this great state, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution. Embodied in that sacred document is the idea that our country is not governed by any single individual, but by that great equalizer, the rule of law.
A few decades ago, you'll remember that principle was in great danger. Our nation watched as the moral compass of the law was diverted from its North Star by the pranks and practices, the crimes and cover ups, of those who valued political loyalty over their duty to the court and their duty to the Constitution. The President of the United States was forced to resign. Prominent lawyers lost their license to practice law, their very livelihood; and the Attorney General of the United States actually went to prison, all because of the national scandal we refer to very simply today as "Watergate."
Lawyers and law firms are again under tremendous pressure to bow to the demands and financial threats from political powers in D.C. The administration issued executive orders that targeted various law firms by name. Those executive orders suspended security clearances for employees of the firms, barred access to government buildings, and contact with government officials, and terminated government contracts with those firms – all because they once represented clients with whom the president disagreed.
The Administration attacks the court itself when it fails to get its way, using name calling and accusing individual judges of "hating America" and of suffering from a "sick ideology." This is a danger to the separation of powers and to the judiciary itself. Governing by intimidation by any party or person is not what the founders meant when they wrote the Constitution. It is, in fact, the very thing they most feared when they divided power among three co-equal branches of government.
In April, Reagan appointee Judge Harvie Wilkinson III described the recent assault on the legal system and the rule of law with some eloquent but disturbing words: “Now the branches come too close to grinding irrevocably against one another in a conflict that promises to diminish both,” he wrote. “...The Executive may succeed for a time in weakening the courts, but over time, history will script the tragic gap between what was and all that might have been, and law in time will sign its epitaph.”
Now, in addition to law firms and lawyers, there have been many other threats targeted against businesses, colleges, scientists and researchers; unions, and veterans; threats to social security, health care, medical research, and education. Threats towards cities, states and countries, large and small.
You know, the law is neither red nor blue. It is not owned by any political party, and it is not the tool of any one individual in power. The law, simply, is the greatest achievement of our society. It's the thing that protects all of us, especially the weak and the vulnerable, those who cannot stand up for themselves. And if we stop believing in that great equalizer, the Constitution, if we give up, if we lose faith, then we lose the very thing that protects every one of us at a time when we need it most.
We all must be vigilant to preserve the Constitution of the United States and of this state. We have got to stand up for the rule of law. And whenever and however you do stand up, believe me, you will count for more than you think. Our country will stand taller, our country will be stronger, and the rule of law will thrive.
This is Governor Janet Mills, and thank you for listening.