The judiciary has become the most important tool for resistance against President Donald Trump. News covering legal battles against the Trump administration has become increasingly prominent as federal judges have blocked numerous policy changes ordered by the president.
Naturally, this has frustrated the current administration, which believes lower federal courts are overstepping their authority. Previous presidents, including former President Joe Biden, suffered similar roadblocks.
Determining how much power the judiciary should have over the president is difficult, but the answer should not be “none at all.” Otherwise, the U.S. risks falling into autocracy, a transition which Turkey is dangerously close to completing.
On March 19, Ekrem İmamoğlu, mayor of Istanbul and the strongest political rival against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was arrested on corruption charges and terror links. Prior to his arrest, İmamoğlu’s mayorship was annulled days after he was elected in 2019 over alleged vote irregularities, forcing another election that he also won.
İmamoğlu has been hounded by the courts ever since and his diploma was invalidated just before his arrest, disqualifying him from running for president. Additionally, dozens of journalists, business leaders, political figures and activists critical of Erdoğan have been arrested or removed from office and replaced with government-appointed officials.
Unlike Trump, Erdoğan faces no resistance from the courts. Following an attempted military coup in 2016, the Turkish government purged thousands of judges and prosecutors and was accused of filling their positions with government loyalists.
Though İmamoğlu’s arrest sparked mass protests, the courts appear unlikely to side with him. The U.S. can never allow a situation like this to occur.
Presidents before Trump have complained about the courts impeding them, and presidents after Trump will likely do the same. However, they must all look to Turkey and accept that the American public cannot trust political leaders if the courts are subjugated. The day the law obeys the president is the day democracy dies.
