Lawfare Isn’t Beaten—In France or America

 From Daniel McCarthy at Chronicles:

Elections are supposed to be decided at the ballot box, not in the courtroom—unless you’re French, or, in this country, a liberal.

What a judge in France has just done by disqualifying Marine Le Pen from running in that nation’s next presidential election is what Democrats dream of doing here. The controversial populist was ahead in the polls, but now Le Pen isn’t even eligible to run, thanks to a court that found her guilty of using European Union funds to pay for political expenses. She insists the spending was legitimate, but as things stand French voters won’t get to decide for themselves who’s right.

Americans might feel safe from this kind of lawfare—when New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg went after President Donald Trump on campaign-finance technicalities, he won his case but lost his gambit. The nakedly political prosecution only added to the momentum propelling Trump back to office, and in our country voters, not judges, get the final word: Bragg’s convictions couldn’t stop the Republican from running, and winning.

Yet, in many ways, the lawfare Democrats waged during and after Trump’s first term succeeded. The price of serving in a Republican administration has gone up, with incoming staffers urged to buy legal insurance to cover the costs of defending against lawfare. “It’s edging into absolute requirement territory,” an official who served in Trump’s first administration told NBC News in January. (Read more.)