Attorney General Letitia James used the state Court of Appeals’ Law Day celebration in Albany on Friday to accuse President Donald Trump of weakening election integrity, states’ rights and the rule of law. Speaking on the national observance dedicated to honoring the law, James said, “What we have witnessed recently are extreme overreaches and deliberate violations of our constitution by the federal government.”
She added that lawyers have a duty to push back. “My friends, if the oaths we took when we passed the bar are to mean anything to any of us, then we must stand firm against any and all attacks on the rule of law and on the judiciary,” James said, calling the issue “not a partisan issue.”
The ceremony came as the court system marked Law Day under the theme “The Rule of Law and the American Dream,” a message that Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson tied to equal opportunity and personal freedom. Wilson said the legal system should ensure that everyone has an equal chance to pursue their calling, and he urged a recommitment to the “original definition of the American dream” by fortifying government systems and protecting the freedom to choose one’s path, express one’s identity and seek happiness on one’s own terms.
The event also reflected how many lawyers in New York have kept raising alarms a year and a half into Trump’s second term about threats to the independence of the legal profession and the judiciary. Kathleen Sweet, president of the New York State Bar Association, said the sanctity of the legal oath means holding political leaders to account. She said Trump’s administration had installed “loyalists who are unqualified, unvetted and inexperienced” in the Justice Department, and she told the audience, “We owe a special non-delegable duty to the rule of law,” “We must speak out for the Constitution,” “We cannot sit back and hope or wait to see who else might do it,” and “It’s up to us.”
After the speeches, Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas presented the Unified Court System’s Judith S. Kaye Service Awards, honoring David Nocenti, Shannon Pero, Nancy Samms and Isidoros Giakoumas for exemplary work, Eranus Thomas for community service, and a group of 13 court officers in Manhattan Criminal Court for heroism after they defended the court against a knife attack. On a day meant to celebrate the rule of law, the message from the state’s top judges and bar leaders was direct: they see the courts as under pressure, and they are urging lawyers to treat that pressure as their problem too.