More than 500 defiant Connecticut lawyers: This is what we believe.

We shall not be moved by the poisonous manipulations of the powerful few. Connecticut Rule of Law Committee members Deidre Daly, Jonathan Freiman, James Glasser, Stephen Goldman James T. Shearin, and Brian Spears created a firm and simple statement upholding what Margaret Thatcher called the first duty of government, the rule of law. More than 500 Connecticut lawyers of many viewpoints, listed here, signed on in support.

It declares:

We are Connecticut lawyers with different political allegiances and views, different backgrounds, and different professional paths: some in law firms, some in non-profit organizations, some in the government. Like those who built this country, we believe in the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And like this country’s founders, we hope to guard against what the Declaration of Independence called “an absolute tyranny over these states.” That tyranny, our Declaration of Independence recognized, arrives when leaders refuse their “assent to laws.” Loyalty to the law is “necessary for the public good,” necessary to democracy. Our deep commitment to this nation’s constitution and laws, and to democracy, brings us together to state publicly what has so often been taken for granted but what must now be said again aloud:

• No one should threaten judges with impeachment or violence because of their decisions.
• The government, like any other party to a case, must follow court orders.
• Lawyers have the right to choose whom they will represent without fear of retaliation from the government.
• People arrested or detained by the government have the right to due process and to consult with counsel.
• People in this country have the freedom of speech and of association, and the government cannot punish anyone for exercising those freedoms.

Over our country’s long history, many have sacrificed to preserve these basic rights: service members, poll workers, judges, elected and appointed officials, educators, and ordinary citizens. We honor them. And we recognize that we, as lawyers, have a special duty to safeguard the law. To that end, we stand today shoulder to-shoulder, lawyers in the Constitution state, to proclaim again these Constitutional guarantees.

To cower in the face of an aspiring autocrat in the thrall of murderous dictators and his grisly battalions of the servile with dark aspirations, is to concede the fight in the early going. In this perilous hour, we shall not be moved from upholding these essentials of a free society.

We fight on, each in their own way.

Published May 15, 2025.