Lori Duff Writes

I’ve always been a rules girl. A law and order girl[1], if you will. I believe deep in my heart that the only thing standing between us and complete anarchy is the societal agreement that we’ll all obey a set of basic rules.

In theory, the American set-up is brilliant. The checks and balances of the judicial, legislative, and executive branches, each making sure none of them are beholden to the other or get too big for their power-britches—amazing! The whole concept of the constant peaceful transfer of power—so radical! So utopian!

And I’m sitting here, professionally forbidden from saying too much,[2] watching it all crumble because people seem to be okay with their preferred ends justifying whatever means necessary.

So rather than criticize current politics, I’m gonna climb in my way-back machine[3], ask you to come along, and go back to seventh grade. Particularly your social studies class. We all studied for the test, passed it, and then, like most things in seventh grade[4], promptly forgot it.

Article One of the Constitution talks about the Legislature, which is Congress, which is made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate. (On a local level, it might be the City Council, or the County Commissioners.) The Legislative Branch makes the laws. It writes them, and votes on whether or not they should be laws. They also, importantly, get to decide what the government does with its money.[5] This is called the “power of the purse.”

Article Two of the Constitution talks about the Executive branch. The Executive branch is headed up by the President (or the Mayor, or the Governor on a local/state level) and is in charge of seeing that the laws passed by Congress get carried out. That’s why law enforcement, like police and prosecutors, are part of the Executive branch.

Article Three of the Constitution talks about the Judicial branch, which is the courts. They not only get to decide who’s guilty and not guilty and wear black robes, but they get to decide what the laws mean and how they interact with each other, and whether the laws are constitutional.

None of these branches are more powerful than the other branches, and none of them can tell the other branches what to do. Sort of. The president can’t tell congress which laws to pass or how to appropriate money, but he can veto legislation, which doesn’t become law unless he signs off on it. That said, if enough of congress wants the law, they can over-ride his[6] veto.

Nobody’s power goes unchecked because the courts are there to make sure everything everyone does is constitutional. And, of course, if the legislature doesn’t like the way the courts are ruling, it can change the law.

There’s a way to challenge things, and a way not to do it. If you think a law is unconstitutional, challenge it in the courts. If you simply don’t like the policy behind the law, get congress to change the law. (Easier said than done, I know, because it quite literally takes an act of congress to get it done, but that’s by design. You really don’t want laws being changed willy-nilly because of the attitude of the day. You want careful and deliberate thought and debate, not a wrecking ball.) If you think laws are being enforced unevenly, change out the executive, don’t destroy the system.

For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Every law got passed for a reason, and though you might have a good reason for overturning it, you need to consider the reason it got passed in the first place. That might be a better reason. Might not be, but might be.

I believe in the system. I believe in the rule of law. I believe what I said up front, it’s the only thing standing between us and utter chaos.

[1] Dun dun

[2] As a judge, even one as seriously part-time as I am, I’m not allowed to be publicly partisanly political.

[3] Please tell me I’m not the only Rocky and Bullwinkle fan here.

[4] Except that time you fell, face first, in the cafeteria, right in front of the table full of popular kids, and stood up with a face full of mashed potatoes and your skirt hiked up to show your Snoopy panties and…

[5] This is in Article I, Section 9, otherwise known as the “Appropriations Clause”.

[6] I feel terrible typing “his, his his” when talking about the president, but it’s been made clear it isn’t going to be “her” any time soon. Pretty sure we’re one of the last developed nations who hasn’t had a female chief executive.

Buy my book, Devil’s Defense and/or find me on Substack.

Lori Duff

Lori B. Duff is an award-winning author who practices law on the side.  Her latest book, “If You Did What I Asked in the First Place” was awarded the Gold Medal for humor in the Foreword INDIES awards in 2019. You can follow her on Twitter at @LoriBDuff and on Facebook. For more blogs written by Lori, click here. For more information about Lori in general, click here. If you want Lori to do your writing for you, click here. If you want Lori to help you market your book, click here.