Giving Up on Impartiality: The Threat of Public Capitulation to Contemporary Attacks on Rule of the Law

Publisher: Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS)

September 26, 2019

Day Pitney Author(s) Chase T. Rogers

Day Pitney partner Chase Rogers, former Chief Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, co-authored an article, "Giving Up on Impartiality: The Threat of Public Capitulation to Contemporary Attacks on Rule of the Law," published by the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System (IAALS) as part of its series entitled "Are We at a Boiling Point?" Rogers' co-author, Stacy Guillon, is a litigator at Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie, and she consulted on IAALS' public trust and confidence work.

The article discusses the critical importance of an apolitical, impartial judiciary and the societal threats to judicial independence, including attacks from other branches of government, growing public distrust, and the shortcomings of media outlets in covering the courts.

"At its core," the authors write, "a judge's role as an independent, apolitical arbiter, has been under attack from all fronts in recent years, threatening judicial independence's place as the centerpiece of our society's thinking about the courts."

While the American legal system has weathered periods of public distrust before, "barriers to civil court access and the recent shift in the role of the news have neutralized the courts' civilian protectors," Rogers and Guillon conclude. "Thus, from our perspective, the most dangerous message to the public today is complacency and the belief that everything will work out as it always has. The public is the sole guardian of the rule of law, and our democracy depends on the public to do that job well. To accomplish that end, the public needs access to real information about the ongoing threats to judicial independence, and it must be poised to take meaningful action in response."

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