Letters: Don’t Ignore the Rule of Law Just to Get Donald Trump | Opinions & Editorials

Reader Jack Morgan writes: “President Joe Biden should use his new powers and declare Donald Trump a domestic terrorist and insurrectionist, have him arrested and locked up while he awaits trial.”

Before we debate whether Biden’s Justice Department has tried that yet (which is still a work in progress), it might be helpful to recall a passage from Robert Bolt’s “A Man for All Seasons.” It’s a discussion between William Roper and Sir Thomas More, in which More is urged to arrest a man who has broken no law. He argues that even the devil should remain free until he has broken the law:

Roper: “So now you give the devil the benefit of the law!

More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a big path through the law to catch the Devil?

Roper: Yeah, I’d abolish all the laws in England to do that!

Meer: Oh? And when the last law was abolished, and the Devil turned on you, where would you hide, Roper, since all laws are flat? This country is planted with laws from coast to coast, laws of man, not of God! And if you cut them down, and you were the one to do it, do you really think you could stand up straight in the wind that would blow? Yes, I would give the Devil the benefit of the law, for my own safety!”

Regardless of how one feels about Trump, no court has ever declared him a “terrorist and insurrectionist” or convicted him of such activities. We as a people must remember that what we prescribe to another out of contempt and emotion may very well “turn against us” in the future. Due process is there for a reason.