Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox stood alongside several colleagues and Connecticut advocates last week to join the American Bar Association’s call to support the rule of law and condemn the Trump administration’s ongoing attack on the American judicial system.
During a state Capitol press conference, Gadkar-Wilcox, a Quinnipiac University constitutional law professor and Democrat from Trumbull, shared words taken from the Declaration of Independence.
“Our president has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states, for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners,” Gadkar-Wilcox said. “He has made judges dependent on his will alone. He has erected multitudes of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.”
The press conference, which included several Democratic lawmakers who are also lawyers, followed a February statement from the American Bar Association condemning the Trump administration’s assault on the rule of law and asking elected representatives to “insist upon adherence to the rule of law” and urged “every attorney to join us and insist that our government, a government of the people, follow the law.”
The ABA is a nonpartisan organization that went on to say it, “does not oppose any administration. Instead, we remain steadfast in our support for the rule of law…The administration cannot choose which law it will follow or ignore.”
Specifically, the ABA called out the following actions of the Trump Administration:
- Targeting judges who issue opinions with which the administration does not agree;
- Targeting legal and medical organizations because of their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) advocacy;
- Illegally freezing U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funds;
- Illegally firing federal workers without due process;
- Attacking constitutionally protected birthright citizenship, and
- Dismantling, without congressional approval, agencies created by acts of Congress.
Last month, 20 Connecticut civic groups called upon the lawyer-legislators of the Connecticut General Assembly to stand with the ABA and condemn the actions of the current administration.
David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut said, “Every elected leader, regardless of party, must uphold their oath to the Constitution. This is not about partisanship. It is about principle. For legislators who are also lawyers, the obligation is even greater. You took two oaths, and both demand action when the rule of law and democracy are under threat. Silence is not an option.”
Gadkar-Wilcox said she stood with the American Bar Association and its call to make a public statement confirming her commitment to the U.S. Constitution and its system of law. She called the Trump administration’s actions both unconstitutional and un-American.
“I make this commitment as a legislator, a lawyer, a professor of constitutional law – and most importantly, as an engaged citizen,” she said. “Our Constitution carefully designed each branch of government to serve a particular function with the other two branches checking any overreach of power. The actions of the federal executive to defy judicial rulings, close programs created and funded by Congress, and deport lawful residents without due process are all acts that go well beyond the boundaries of the Constitution.”
