Charter Member Richard Bernstein Warns of Threats to Democracy from Military Election Interference

Richard Bernstein, a charter member of the Society for the Rule of Law and an appellate lawyer who clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, spoke with HuffPost about the dangerous implications of recent legal arguments advanced by the Trump administration.

Bernstein warned that the administration’s position in court cases concerning the use of federal troops could erode long-standing prohibitions on military interference in elections:

“If that position were accepted broadly, it’s an invitation for the Trump administration and any administration to violate the criminal law by ordering election interference by the military. If that doesn’t threaten our rule of law and democracy, what does?”

He added a stark hypothetical to illustrate the stakes:

“To be very clear, [say] the president orders troops to go to every polling place in the United States on Election Day. According to the government’s argument, no federal court could enjoin it, the president would be immune and the president could pardon all of the people he ordered to break the criminal law. If that’s not a prescription for how to lose our republic, I don’t know what is.”

The HuffPost article also highlighted an exclusive post Bernstein wrote earlier this month for the Society, in which he explained Judge Charles Breyer’s decision in Newsom v. Trump. In that case, Breyer rejected the Trump administration’s sweeping claims of presidential power and confirmed that courts can hear challenges to violations of the Posse Comitatus Act.

Read the full piece here.