Protecting the Constitution

Yesterday the New York Daily News ran an op-ed by Harlan Levy entitled “A playbook for state AGs to defeat Trump.” Levy opens with this: “Now more than ever, state attorney generals are the last line of defense against the excesses of the President in Washington. This is a welcome development — but the expectations are high and the challenges many.”

He talks about how Republican state AG’s did the same thing during the Obama Administration that Democratic state AG’s are doing now, but regardless of party their efforts need to be based on facts and not politics. My favorite line in the article is this; “In the heyday of the Justice Department, Robert F. Kennedy and Nicholas Katzenbach stood for the federal Constitution and federal law. Now it will be state AGs.”

It’s nice to see Katzenbach’s tenure at the Justice Department remembered, particularly as we celebrate Independence Day. He loved this country and the Constitution that guides this nation. Katzenbach’s favorite class at Princeton University was about the constitution and taught by constitutional scholar and author Edward Corwin. Corwin’s book, The Constitution and What it Means Today,  first published in 1920 and followed by several updates and editions, was what Katzenbach referred to as “the best single book on the U.S. Constitution. …  beautifully written for laymen.”

As we celebrate the founding of this nation and the Declaration of Independence, I’m thinking (and, yes, still writing) about Nicholas Katzenbach.

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