LinkedIn on Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Our country’s founders deserve enormous credit for having crafted the Constitution, the usefulness of which has survived far longer than they had any right to expect.  That said, it has recently become obvious that their foresight was not unlimited.  Recent events, well more than two centuries later, are challenging the structure of the government they created in ways they could not have anticipated.  We can forgive them if their vision was flawed.

Thanks to Donald Trump, we have learned, for example, that the Department of Justice needs to be independent, fully outside the Executive Branch.  We cannot count on the sanity or civility of the President we elect.  A Justice Department that works for the President cannot be expected to save us when it is the President who is the source of the problem.

We have also realized that lags associated with the adjudication of critical, urgent lawlessness on the part of the President are too long.  Even more importantly, the ability of the federal courts to enforce their orders is questionable when they might depend upon the US Marshalls Service which is itself a component of the Justice Department.

By law and the personal oaths they take, US Marshalls are required to serve the federal courts.  But will they, when push comes to shove?  When the President through the Attorney General has fired and keeps firing those Marshalls who would honor their legal commitments until the DOJ finds someone who is willing to cooperate.

It makes you wonder if the same might be said for our military, that the President through his or her Secretary of Defense might fire our military leaders who will not order troops into American Cities until someone who will is in command.  Now there’s a scary thought for you.

The solution to these and other Constitutional shortcomings we’ve realized as of late is to amend the document, but careful what we wish for.  Maybe, if the Democrats do well in state legislature elections around the country as well as in Congress later this year…  Maybe this is as good a time as any to amend the Constitution while images are still vivid and the problems President Trump has brought to our attention are fresh in everyone’s minds.

-Les