Is This America’s Last Independence Day?

Will America, nearly two and a half centuries after declaring independence, be effectively ruled once more by a king?

This long, hot weekend, Americans are coming together with family, friends, and neighbors to celebrate the July 4th holiday, which marks the 249th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Almost two and a half centuries ago, brave men living on these shores under the rule of King George III publicly declared their independence from not just the English empire that ruled here but from monarchy – from being ruled by kings.

Will Americans be able to celebrate this anniversary next year?

Or will Donald Trump’s unchecked power–unprecedented power the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts has given him over the rights of citizens and immigrants on these shores–mean the end of America as we have known it?

Will America still be a place where the people can express peaceful dissent from the government without fear of being locked up or exiled without any real due process of law, without truly independent courts having the power to say no to Trump and have those rulings be followed as binding law? Will the press be able to report truthfully and critically about Trump without fear of reprisal? Will American states, cities, and towns be able to hold free and fair elections without interference from Trump’s henchmen threatening to jail those protecting the right to vote, targeting election officials with trumped-up claims and outright lies?

These are not merely hypothetical scenarios: for the past five months, Trump has been taking steps to impose these restrictions, along with threats to use the power of the state to bring vengeance to his political opponents, whom he vilifies. And for the past five months, while we have seen lower court judges bravely stand up against him in defense of the rule of law, we have also seen the Republican appointees to the nation’s highest court act in lock-step to block the enforcement of almost all of those orders and further embolden Trump. These partisan edicts for the president of the party that rewarded them with judicial robes come in the wake of their unprecedented ruling a year ago to give Trump immunity from criminal prosecution, which paved the way for his return to power.

Already, in a few short months, Trump has asserted authoritarian powers denied even to English kings. The Magna Carta (the great charter of law and rights), issued in 1215, limited the previously unlimited rule of monarchs and provided the literal foundation for the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights. In clauses 39 and 40, the Magna Carta declares:

“No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land.”

And “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice.”

What Trump has been trying to impose is a regime that can wipe away a person’s freedom, without any independent check by a judge or jury, based on the assertions of his agents. He has assailed any courts that dared to follow the long-standing rules in America that apply to all “persons” under our Constitution, both citizens and immigrants. And the Roberts Court has changed the rules – by re-interpreting long-standing procedural and substantive rights – to aid him.

But all is not lost. Just two weeks ago, millions of Americans took part in the No Kings Day rallies. These were the largest protests in U.S. history, and the events showed how Americans from across the political spectrum recognize the risk America is facing from Trump’s desire to act without any check on his power. The No Kings Day rallies also revealed the great love most Americans have for the ideals of our country, that we cherish our freedoms and will stand up, speak out, dance, and sing against authoritarianism taking further root on these shores.

In the year ahead, we must come together in a great civic conversation with our family, our friends, and our neighbors about our Declaration of Independence. That document, with its condemnation of King George because “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good,” is a powerful declaration against tyranny.

To truly celebrate and venerate the Declaration of Independence, we are going to have to work together to ensure that our “unalienable rights” are not destroyed by Trump. And, in the words of the Gettysburg Address, to ensure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”