Amid Trump attacks on judiciary, SC lawyers, judges take a stand on Law Day

In celebration of the annual Law Day, more than 100 lawyers, law clerks and a sprinkling of judges gathered Thursday, May 1, in the courtyard in front of Columbia’s federal courthouse to commemorate the value of America’s rule of law.

It was a nonpolitical, low-key event under a hot noonday sun — no speaker specifically referred to the Trump administration’s attacks in recent months on judges and court decisions, assaults almost unequaled in American history in their scope and intensity. No one referred to the administration’s pressuring law firms to donate hundreds of millions of dollars in pro bono legal work to Trump causes from law firms whose clients or lawyers have run afoul of Trump.

But Thursday’s event was the first time in anyone’s memory that the courthouse courtyard was the scene of a public gathering intended to show support for the rule of law.

“No, it’s obviously not a coincidence. It’s a recognition from a lot of us that we have a real emergency for the country and we have an obligation to speak the truth and educate the public,” said Chris Kenney, a Columbia attorney who was circulating a petition at the event asking lawyers to sign an open online “Letter from Members of the South Carolina Bar.” The letter expressed alarm at various Trump administration assaults on longstanding legal norms such as due process. More than 170 attorneys had signed by day’s end, including several retired judges.

One signer was retired S.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Waller, now 87, who in a telephone interview with The State said that as a former state representative, state senator, circuit court judge and associate justice that, “The law has been my life.”

“I am extremely concerned with the law not being followed now, and it bothers me. I have been trying to think of something I could do to at least put my opinion out there. That’s why I got involved in this,” Waller said. He served on the high court from 1994 to 2008.

At Thursday’s event, William Hubbard, dean of the University of South Carolina’s Joseph F. Rice School of Law, spoke of the key elements of what makes the nation’s rule of law a fundamental part of the national character.

Noting that among the first purposes of the Constitution was to “establish justice,” Hubbard spoke of a time 800 years ago when King John of England was forced by the barons at Runnymede to sign the Magna Carta, a document which for the first time laid down the key principle that “no man shall be imprisoned or stripped of his rights... without due process of law.”

Hubbard, a former president of the American Bar Association, has talked about the Magna Carta and the rule of law for years, but these days that ancient right of due process is being tested in the courts in the case of Kilmar Garcia, an El Salvadoran national living in Maryland whom the administration has admitted mistakenly deporting to an El Salvadoran prison without the due process of a hearing.

Hubbard made no mention of that case, but with his mention of the “due process,” people instantly thought of the Garcia case, said Columbia attorney Stuart Andrews.

“Hubbard didn’t have to mention Garcia’s name. That case and others are on the front of the minds of lawyers in South Carolina and lawyers throughout the nation,” Andrews said. “We are taught from our first days in law school that ‘due process’ is the cornerstone of justice and fairness in our courts and throughout our system of government.”

Hubbard went on, noting that “the courts do not exist to do the king’s bidding” and the Constitution established the courts as a coequal branch of government.

Today the nation has a ‘’civics crisis,” where more people need to know the fundamentals of our democracy, said Hubbard, quoting Thomas Jefferson, who said “an educated citizen is a prerequisite for survival as a free people.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are public citizens with special responsibilities to strengthen the rule of law and defend the Constitution,” Hubbard told the gathering.

Behind Hubbard was a statue symbolizing the achievements of a society based on the rule of law. It depicted one of South Carolina’s most accomplished lawyers, the late Matthew Perry, who won landmark decisions in civil rights cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and later became the state’s first African American federal judge.

Another speaker Thursday was U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin of Columbia, who spoke about the history of the oath of office that people take, an oath “without allegiance to politics or to policy.”

U.S. Judge Joe Anderson also spoke, leading the gathering in a group affirmation of what is called the Lawyer’s Civility Oath, which contains principles that seek to hold lawyers to high standards of integrity, decency and professionalism.

“Do you solemnly swear or affirm that you will affirm, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and will maintain the respect and courtesy due courts of justice, judicial officers and those who assist them?” Anderson said.

“I do,” said the crowd.

A former state judge unable to attend but who signed the petition circulated by Kenney and other lawyers was Gary Clary of the Upstate.

“As a lawyer, when you take your oath of office to be an attorney, the rule of law is paramount,” said Clary, who is also a former state representative. “When the law is attacked in any fashion, lawyers need to stand up.”

Three former U.S. attorneys for South Carolina attended Thursday’s gathering. They were Bill Nettles, Reggie Lloyd and Adair Boroughs.

State Attorney General Alan Wilson, South Carolina’s chief legal officer, was invited but did not attend. A spokesman said in an email he “had to cancel because of personal family obligations.”

Apart from the Law Day gathering in Columbia, one South Carolina law firm taking a visible stand in support of the rule of law is Motley Rice of Charleston. It signed onto a friend of the court brief with some 500 other law firms backing Perkins Coie, a national law firm targeted by the Trump administration over its representation of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The Trump order limited the firm’s access to federal buildings and imposed other restrictions relating to the firm’s representation of government contractors. The firm is fighting the order in court.

In March, Trump called for the impeachment of a federal judge whose decision he did not agree with.

That prompted a rare public rebuke of Trump by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who released a statement saying, “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Law Day events were held around the country Thursday, including one in New York City at Manhattan’s federal courthouse that attracted some 1,500 lawyers, according to the New York Times.

Another took place in Charleston, where about 30 lawyers gathered in the courtyard of the Waties Waring federal courthouse and, led by U.S. Judge Richard Gergel, recited the oath lawyers take when they become members of the bar.

The Columbia commemoration was organized by the Columbia law firm of Burnette, Shutt & McDaniel, which invited the speakers and got the word out about the event.

This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 10:32 AM.