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Law is the Institution that Must Not Crumble

Steve Russell
5 min readNov 14, 2019

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Fire Her for Lack of Loyalty? Graphic from Pixabay

I hate it when lawyers scam the public with esoteric knowledge.

The first historic day of the Trump impeachment hearing was full of GOP lawyers abusing the hearsay rule. I spent most of the day in the clutches of the Department of Veterans Affairs bureaucracy, so I did not get to watch. I thought I would not get to hear it, either, because I’ve had to cancel satellite radio over the cost. I only mention this to praise National Public Radio and particularly KUT in Austin for suspending regular programming in the interest of history.

History? Isn’t everything history? Why don’t all events bigfoot the local news?

There are some events that don’t require waiting for the professional historians to decide. The commercial stations, as well as the public stations, have to predict what the future will find significant — the burning World Trade Center, Tienanmen Square tank man, the flames starting at the Branch Davidian compound, Hurricane Katrina victims waving down Coast Guard choppers from their roofs.

While all the above news is more photogenic than congressional hearings, you can still take impeachment evidence to the historical bank. Andrew “Tennessee Tailor” Johnson. Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon. William Jefferson “Slick Willie” Clinton. The current…

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Steve Russell
Steve Russell

Written by Steve Russell

Enrolled Cherokee, 9th grade dropout, retired judge, associate professor emeritus, and (so far) cancer survivor. Memoir: Lighting the Fire (Miniver Press 2020)

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