Phoenix-area legal professionals gathered on the steps of the Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse on Thursday, joining others in cities across the country to ceremonially re-take their attorney’s oath to sound the alarm about what they say is the mounting danger facing the rule of law.
Bo Dul, a former legal advisor to Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, said the current political climate underscores how important due process and the role lawyers play in upholding the law is.
“It's possible to distort and to weaponize the law,” said Dul, “not to strengthen our democracy and strengthen the rule of law, but to undermine it and to work against it. So I think the kind of motivating factor here in bringing everyone together was to reaffirm our commitment.”
Dul told a crowd of her peers about how the North Star of her career was set in childhood, when her family fled Cambodia.
“Understanding what the alternative is is a big part of what reinforces the importance of the rule of law and our constitutional form of government and due process here in the U.S.,” she said, adding that the ‘rule of law’ isn’t just legal jargon – it’s what keeps society fair and functioning, even when people disagree about what that should look like.
But Dul said she’s also seeing worrying signs.
“The disregard for court orders, with attacks on the independence of the judiciary,” Dul said, “with lawyers who are willing to make arguments that don’t have a reasonable basis in fact or law.”
She expressed that it was especially heartening to see the crowd gathered in downtown Phoenix to reaffirm their commitment.
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