Grand Juries Are Saving Democracy

The entrance to the Supreme Court building announces “Equal Justice Under Law,” but SCOTUS hasn’t felt like it represents that American value in quite some time, pretty much since. Bush versus Gore in December 2000, and even more so since the repeal of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby in 2013, and especially since the John Roberts court declared, in 2024, that the president was immune from any sanction for “official acts”, even those clearly illegal, during his mandate.

Meanwhile, an underappreciated foundation of American justice has repeatedly emerged as the hero of this lawless second administration of Donald Trump: local grand juries, most famous for the insult that they would easily indict a ham sandwich. This has never been (uniformly) true, but the low expectation of rigor has helped draw attention to how these ordinary citizens courageously stood up to Trump while so many elites, including universities, law firms, the Republican Congress, and six of the nine SCOTUS justices, caved.

The most recent grand jury victory for democracy came Tuesday afternoon, when a Washington panel declined to indict six Democratic congressmen, all former military personnel, who recorded an ad reminding their military and intelligence colleagues that they are not obligated to obey illegal orders from their superiors. The moving ad, titled “Don’t Abandon Ship,” merely repeated a language common to U.S. military training courses since World War II.

The FBI had been investigating all six Senators Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, as well as Representatives Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is waging his own little jihad against Kelly, formally censuring him and reducing his retirement pay. “[Kelly] released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth alleged last month. The grand jury cannot undo Hegseth’s demagoguery, but it protects all six from prosecution.

The motives for the prosecutions have never been clear. Trump immediately declared their decision: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” » Jeanine Pirro, a barely articulate Fox News personality, now incredibly the United States Attorney in Washington, D.C., addressed the grand jury in an attempt to argue that lawmakers “violated a law that prohibits interfering with the loyalty, morale or discipline of the United States armed forces,” according to The New York Times.

Remember, local grand juries also declined to indict Subway sandwich-throwing hero Sean Dunn, New York Attorney General Letitia James (twice), and several ICE observers outside Chicago’s Broadview Detention Center.

After the grand jury’s decision, Mark Kelly said: “This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackeys. Trump wants every American to be too afraid to speak out.”

Jason Crow went further: “If these assholes think they’re going to intimidate us, threaten me, and silence me, and go after our political opponents and make us back down, they’ve got another thing coming. The tide is turning.”

Let’s hope so. Attorney General Pam Bondi is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about her lawless department. She should have some good ones. Maybe even Republicans?