By Blake Hollingsworth | Staff Writer
Baylor Law School held a webinar Wednesday afternoon on growing attacks against the judiciary and how they threaten the foundation of American democracy. The discussion centered on the importance of judicial independence and the consequences of public mistrust in the legal system.
“This isn’t new,” Wendy May-Dreyer, the head of iCivics, a civic education nonprofit, said. “But the attention it’s getting now is necessary. Over half of millennials think America is a failed democracy.” She also said nearly 30% of respondents in that age group believe a dictatorship could be a better form of government.
Jennifer Doan, president of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), said these attacks, particularly online ones, are often personal and misplaced.
“There are so many different avenues now to speak out,” Doan said. “It’s not just something that you should shoot off and just hit ‘send’ … but something really thoughtful, not necessarily reactionary all the time.”
The webinar also discussed judges’ inability to defend themselves publicly; Professor Liz Fraley, the discussion’s moderator, cited the case of a local judge who accepted a plea and was subject to threats of violence against his family members and court staff.
The panelists agreed these kinds of attacks don’t just hurt individual judges — they chip away at trust in the entire legal system.
“Those are [attacks] that hurt the judiciary as a whole,” Doan said. “It hurts the judicial process as a whole, and it undermines our democracy.”
Additionally, adherence to the rule of law has declined globally for seven straight years, with the U.S. seeing a significant drop in rankings, according to May-Dreyer.
“In the simplest of terms … [the government is] ruled by law, not men,” May-Dreyer said. “No one is above the law, and there is a process that is to be followed.
Many of these challenges stem from a lack of civic education, with fewer schools teaching students how the government functions, according to May-Dreyer.
“We’re losing generations that believe in the Constitution and understand the foundations of our system of government,” May-Dreyer said. “That, no doubt, plays into not appreciating things like the rule of law and why separation of powers goes away if you don’t have that kind of ability.”
On a systemic level, the panel advocated for legislation supporting civic education and professional development for teachers and legal professionals.
For example, organizations like iCivics and ABOTA have focused on education — both in classrooms and within professional legal communities. May-Dreyer said iCivics now reaches more than two million students a year with free, nonpartisan resources.
Additionally, Doan discussed how ABOTA fights for judiciary education.
“We have a teachers’ law school in all 95 chapters where we provide programming — they’re on tough questions of search and seizure,” Doan said. “We’re working now, with respect to defense of the judiciary and how you teach that to schools.”
However, education alone isn’t enough, according to May-Dreyer, who stressed the importance of outreach at the community level.
“There’s a growing trend in this country to have extremists voicing opinions and everybody else silenced because [nonextremists are] too afraid about what it might cost them personally,” May-Dreyer said. “I think that’s unfortunate, because our greatest sphere of influence is to talk to the people that we interact with on a daily basis.”
Furthermore, May-Dreyer said this type of engagement is especially important in an era of misinformation.
“The silence is what allows the misinformation to just fill that void [of knowledge],” May-Dreyer said. “Every one of us can [engage] — even if you’re not comfortable or don’t have the time to get on a speaking circuit about it.”
