I have written previously of my experience living in Argentina. Most people there are detached or resigned that most of their institutions are corrupt and that none can be counted on to deliver. In fact, one of the recurring, somewhat tongue-in-cheek conversations in the country revolves around the great leader who will come and save the nation “someday”. I remember one time, when I was giving a speech there, a man stood up and said to me, “Young man, don’t you understand that we are waiting for a leader to show us the way out of this mess?” My response was, “Yes, I do understand. So will you take the job until he (or she) arrives?”

This is a challenge relevant to each and every one of us in America today.

Recently the New York Times exposed that Chief Justice Roberts has been putting his partisan thumb on the scales of Justice when it comes to rulings affecting Donald Trump. 

This adds yet another layer of controversy to a Supreme Court already under scrutiny for ethical concerns relating to Justices Thomas and Alito. Consider that Roberts had had an active role in lobbying and using his power as Chief Justice to press for:

• Leniency for Former President Trump in the trio of cases involving the January 6th Capitol riot,
• Immunity for acts committed by a sitting President that are within the President’s constitutional purview,
• Recognition of executive privilege in presidential decision making,
• Confirmation of the president’s broad authority to suspend the entry of non-citizens into the country,
• The overturning of a state’s right to include or exclude who is on their ballots, and
• The striking down of voting rights protections provided under the Voting Rights Act.

Even more concerning is the Court having ignored decades of precedent in overturning Roe v. Wade and, in doing so, stripping away what was previously understood as a constitutionally protected right—bodily autonomy and a woman’s right to choose.

The Supreme Court of the United Status (SCOTUS) has always been the most respected and trusted institution of the three branches of our constitutionally designed framework for democratic governance. Our whole system stands on the principle that the Rule of Law is the foundation for everything else. The idea of a government “by and for the people” depends upon living with and living by the Supreme Court’s declarations as the law of the land.

While there always has been and always will be breakdowns in practice and dishonest and disruptive people and circumstances, it is presumed that, in the final analysis, we can trust our Supreme Court to be above politics, objectively handing out rulings that are guided by the Constitution, the Rule of Law, and precedent. It is true that, ideally, we should trust our Executive and Legislative branches as well; however, the Supreme Court is special, insofar as it has the last word when the the other branches or other institutions in our system of governance aren’t working or are breaking down for one reason or another.

For America’s democratic system as a whole to work, we must trust and respect the institution of the Supreme Court itself. We don’t have to like or agree with all of its decisions, but we must be able to respect those decisions and place our trust in them. Trust is the foundation for our relationship with one another and is the glue that keeps us in the game as citizens of the United States. Respect grants legitimacy to SCOTUS’s role and honors the responsibility of Supreme Court justices for making whatever decisions need to be made.

In everyday life, we usually speak of trust and respect as virtues. Most of the time, however, we use them as tools of control in our relationships. 

For example, you may say, “I trust you.” What you won’t say is what you mean by that, which usually is, “I trust you…as long as your behavior and actions are in line with what I believe and your results are what I want and expect from you.” In this way, your granting trust is all tied up with controlling my behaviors, actions, and results. Typically, when you judge I am operating inside what you deem to be acceptable parameters, you will trust me. When you judge I am operating outside those parameters, you will stop trusting me. Trust becomes a kind of currency that you give me or take from me. Further, when trust is missing or has been lost in our relationship, this makes me responsible for its lack (because your trust is based in how I have or have not behaved or acted).

Let’s look a little more closely at the nature of trust. Trust is a judgment we make based on our beliefs. If I trust you, I believe you will keep your promise. I believe you are competent to deliver what you offer. I believe you are sincere. And I believe that you are committed to fulfilling the promise you have made to me. When these conditions of competency, sincerity, and commitment are met, I then may declare “I trust you”. Should one of these conditions no longer be met, then my judgment may well change and my trust in you will likely be withdrawn.

What can be done when trust with an institution like SCOTUS is breached?

The power and value of any institution comes from the people; specifically, from their trust in the integrity of that institution. When it comes to breaches of trust with SCOTUS and by extension, the rule of law, our country is advancing towards the brink of lawlessness and anarchy. At that point, people of good will must look to our nation’s leaders to clean up the organizations that have been corrupted and restore the trust of the people. Hopefully, our leaders will be inclined to listen.

We cannot survive as a democracy if we don’t trust our institutions, especially SCOTUS. The separation of powers delineated in our Constitution empowered each branch with the mechanisms for correcting dysfunction and breakdowns in the other branches. The President can override Congress with Executive Decrees; the House has the power to impeach; and the Senate has the power to convict those impeached. SCOTUS has the power to override both House and Senate.

People in positions of power are human beings and, as such, they are not perfect. With their great responsibilities comes great accountability. What we can do when they falter in their responsibilities is hold them accountable to live up to the ideals and mandate of the institution and, where and when appropriate, make corrections.

Today, because of the freedoms we still enjoy here in America, each of us has several ways to influence their priorities and policies. We can communicate with our elected representatives. We can use social media to initiate and sustain pertinent conversations. We can organize and protest until those in power are clear what the will of the people is on this topic. (In the past, protests have effectively grown into social movements that have brought us: better wages, reasonable hours and safer working conditions; the abolition of racial segregation, discrimination and disenfranchisement; the drawdown of troops in Vietnam in the 1960s; and the legalization of same-sex marriages, to name a few changes.)

Until we resolve that “enough is enough” and begin having the difficult conversations that must happen if anything is to change, we can expect to continue drifting with the status quo until our entire society and culture become resigned, like Argentina did, that: a) there is no possibility for change, and b) nothing and no one makes a difference. “We Are The Leaders We Have Been Looking For” by New York Times best-selling author and Princeton professor Eddie S. Glaude Jr. echoes this theme. His 2024 book provides even more specific ways each of us can practice leadership within our communities through collective action and responsibility in ways to bring about the kind of change we’re committed to.

I don’t know if the man in the audience in Argentina all those years ago took me up on my challenge that he be a leader until that nation’s ‘real’ leader arrived. Ironically, that challenge is haunting me now.

Can I take a stand for the integrity of our institutions? Can I stand for the possibility that trust can be restored? Can I stand for the institution we know as SCOTUS continuing to work with enough of us paying attention and staying engaged in the political processes necessary for bringing about long-term systemic transformation?

Can you?

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Originally published October 4, 2024 on Jim Selman’s Substack “At the Crossroads“