Prominent Harvard Law professor: ‘The rule of law’ and ‘the First Amendment’ are ‘almost entirely without content’

Volokh Conspiracy

. . . "It’s always hard to trace the precise practical influence of academic ideas. But what are the odds that views like these have not influenced the perspective of the past couple of generations of liberal lawyers? And if Obama administration lawyers have at least a creeping suspicion that the concept of the rule of law is vacuous, and instead that law is just politics by another name as critical scholars have argued for decades, it’s easy to see how that would influence their decision-making, especially at the margins.

"And just to be clear, I think that Donald Trump does show contempt for the rule of law and the First Amendment, which I believe have plenty of “content.” In Trump’s case, I don’t think it’s a rejection of the concept of the rule of law as much as complete, willful ignorance of the principles underlying our legal system." . . .