Judicial independence 'not up for negotiation,' ABA President Klein says in speech addressing Trump tweets

In a speech to the ABA House of Delegates - not a tweet - the President of the American Bar Association has renounced Trump's repeated attacks on judges.
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Judicial independence 'not up for negotiation,' Klein says in speech addressing Trump tweets//ABA Journal

ABA President Linda A. Klein, speaking to the association’s House of Delegates on Monday, issued a call to arms for lawyers to defend the rule of law in response to a spate of attacks on law in general and the judiciary in particular by the Trump Administration, though the name went unmentioned.

“Make no mistake, personal attacks on judges are attacks on our Constitution,” Klein said during the ABA Midyear Meeting in Miami. “Let us be clear. The independence of the judiciary is not up for negotiation.”

Klein, an Atlanta lawyer and senior managing shareholder of Baker Donelson, noted that there has been a lot of talk about protecting borders, and that every country has a right to do so. But the United States has due process protections even for noncitizens. Klein said lawyers need to take the lead in what is “our defining season.”

In response to President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on refugees and immigrants, Klein said that those swept up in immigration enforcement should be given hearings before impartial immigration judges. “We are very proud of lawyers around the nation who flocked to airports where immigrants were detained,” she said. “It is important that lawyers represent their clients’ interests—even unpopular interests—without fear of retaliation or persecution.”

Klein defined another, most important border: “It’s our Constitution and the rule of law it embodies. And we as lawyers are called upon to protect it. As Winston Churchill put it, ‘Never give in. Never, never, never, never!’”