When the Law Breaks

Fresno Criminal Lawyer

Fresno Criminal Lawyer – Criminal Defense Lawyer Rick Horowitz

I’m not prone to writing here on my criminal defense blog about political issues. “Back in the day” when I wrote a lot of political posts, I did so at Unspun — I came up with that as a response to Bill O’Reilly’s all-spin zone — back before Bill O’Reilly became a precursor event to the #metoo movement after paying out over $45,000,000 in settlements for sexual harassment claims.

As usual, a post by my friend, Scott Greenfield, convinces me to speak up here. We’ve reached the point where I think it matters to me as a criminal defense lawyer.

When the Law Breaks

Bill O’Reilly lost his job. Trump won his back.

And this time, he brought friends.

Friends who know very-little-to-nothing about the right way to run the departments they’ve been appointed to bend to Trump’s will, but who have been given both the power and directive to do so. Friends with no regard for law, precedent, or constitutional boundaries.

In fact, tearing down all of that appears to be the very point.

An exposed sexual harasser — the convicted felon — is President again and the gloves are off.

This time he isn’t content to just ignore norms. He’s demolishing them. The Department of Justice is no longer independent: it is a tool of the President. Congress has been sidelined. The top brass of the military and the heads of federal agencies — gone, replaced with loyalists who know better than to follow the Constitution when the man at the top has other plans.

And now, even candor to the court — one of the bedrock ethical obligations of any lawyer — is grounds for removal if it runs afoul of the White House’s narrative.

That’s not spin. That’s authoritarianism in progress.

Because when the law breaks, down comes the democratic Republic — the very basis of our existence as a free democratic Republic.

First, He Came For… (A Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Lament)

It’s not that I’ve been completely silent about what’s happening. I’ve spoken out on social media. But I haven’t blogged about what’s happening. Not even on my personal website.

To riff off Niemöller:

So, yes, now we have Trump dismantling the law itself — twisting justice into loyalty tests, mocking courts, calling for the impeachment of judges and justices who uphold the law and silencing honest lawyers.

So, yes, I’m finally speaking out — not because it’s political, but because when the law breaks, there’s nothing left to defend.

Why the Law Matters

But why does the law matter so much? After all, didn’t Trump say,

He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.

— President Trump, quoted in Maggie Haberman, Charlie Savage, and Jonathan Swan, “Trump Suggests No Laws Are Broken if He’s ‘Saving His Country’” (February 15, 2025)

But Trump could not possibly be more wrong. Because law — real law, rooted in fairness, integrity, and candor — is the only thing that stands between ordinary citizens and unchecked power. It’s not just a concept, and it’s certainly not optional. When law functions properly, it protects everyone — not just the favored few.

It’s why, in the United States, no one gets to be Dictator, even for a day. (That self-imposed limitation of one day, though, seems to have been lifted.)

Yet when law is broken, twisted, or weaponized, it no longer serves as a shield. It becomes a sword wielded by those with the strength to take it.

Every day, as a criminal defense lawyer, my job is to hold the government accountable. Prosecutors must follow rules. Judges must apply laws evenly. And defense attorneys — like me — must challenge abuses wherever they occur. That only works if everyone, from the lowest-level prosecutor to the highest-ranking judge, plays by the same rules. Unless there is an agreement that “no one is above the law” the system fails.

No One is Above the Law, Except Trump?

This is a centuries old principle. The principle — if not the exact wording — was most sharply laid as the foundation of Western Civilization against a King.

Magna Carta was the seminal document that established the principle of the rule of law in Britain. Written in Latin and issued in 1215, even in translation it doesn’t precisely say “no one is above the law.” But it certainly curbed the power of the king — John — and made clear that his power was not untrammeled. The British Parliament, which owes its existence in part to the document, calls it “the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government was not above the law.”

— Victor Mather, “A Brief History of the Phrase ‘No One Is Above the Law’” (June 13, 2024)

President Theodore Roosevelt helped promote the concept — although ironically embedded it with the “casual sexism” of his time:

“No man is above the law, and no man is below it,” he said. “Nor do we ask any man’s permission when we require him to obey it.”

— Victor Mather, “A Brief History of the Phrase ‘No One Is Above the Law’” (June 13, 2024)

And President “I Am Not A Crook” Richard Nixon, perhaps foreshadowing our current convicted-felon President — or perhaps inspiring him — tried to promote the idea that if a President broke the law, well, the law wasn’t really being broken.

“The President of the United States is not above the law,” his lawyers acknowledged in a lengthy legal brief. He could face justice, they said, “but only after he has been impeached, convicted and removed from office.”

It seemed as if every other opinion article or letter to the editor at the time was rumination on whether Nixon might be “above the law.” In the end, the Supreme Court decided he was not, ruling unanimously that he had to turn over the tapes.

Nixon was unconvinced, telling the interviewer David Frost in 1977, “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

— Victor Mather, “A Brief History of the Phrase ‘No One Is Above the Law’” (June 13, 2024)

Even the argument that prosecution could only follow impeachment, conviction, and removal from office has been adopted by Trump’s lawyers.

The Man Who Would Be King, or Dictator, or President for Life

Donald Trump is not subtle. He never has been. What he lacks in subtlety, though, he makes up for in raw, unchecked ambition.

You might think he was joking, but he did, after all, declare himself “King.”

And since his re-election to the Presidency, Trump has systematically dismantled the guardrails of American democracy — he ignores courts, essentially dismisses any and all congressional oversight, installs loyalists across federal agencies (and/or guts those agencies), and now shatters even the independence of the Department of Justice. Pretending that courts still have relevance — though, again, he normally just seems to ignore them — he terminates lawyers who refuse to betray their duty of candor to those courts.

And lately Trump has begun floating the idea of serving a third term — an explicit violation of the 22nd Amendment. He insists there are ways to do it. Of course, those “ways” only exist if the Constitution itself is ignored or rendered meaningless.

But that might not even be enough for Trump. Who’s to say he’ll stop at trying to twist constitutional interpretations or simply ignoring them outright? Already, he’s demonstrated that traditional safeguards crumble when confronted by unchecked executive power and a complicit apparatus.

Could he suspend elections altogether? It once seemed unthinkable. But then, so did firing attorneys for the crime of telling the truth in court, removing military leaders who opposed politicization, or openly defying Court rulings. Each unchallenged step paves the way for the next, even more audacious breach.

What would we do if he did suspend elections? Would the courts hold firm? Would Congress rise, belatedly, from irrelevance? Would people finally see the dismantling of democracy for what it truly is — a collapse of our constitutional Republic? Would Trump’s installation of his own cronies at the top of the military — and, by the way, his successful wooing of Sheriffs and other law enforcement agencies — prevent anyone from stopping him? In other words, if there were opposition from Congress or anyone else, would it matter?

I don’t have easy answers to those questions. But we must ask them, urgently, before they become our new reality. I’ve often pointed out that Nazi Germany did not spring fully-formed from the brow of Hitler. There was a path that led inexorably to that transformation. Trump seems to be drawing from it, just as he did from Roy Cohn, whose antics he has now surpassed.

When the Law Breaks, The RepublicWill Fall

When the law breaks, we don’t need the Republic to collapse all at once to lose our freedoms. It’s enough that we allow it to break, rule by rule, ignoring each crack until nothing remains standing. Candor, honesty, and integrity aren’t just ideals — they’re essential foundations. Without them, everything we defend, everything we cherish, collapses.

It’s time for all of us — lawyers, judges, citizens — to speak honestly, stand firmly, and defend our Republic.

Before it’s too late.

The post When the Law Breaks appeared first on Fresno Criminal Lawyer. It was written by Rick.