More and more, the news of the day seems to indicate an ongoing corrosion of our public institutions. Judges are allowing vast abuses to play out, on the premise that they can be challenged later. The consequence is the massive destruction of federal agencies, degradation of safeguards against corruption, violations of the labor rights of hundreds of thousands of civil servants, and mafia-style coercion of private universities. 

Today, we see the second attempt by Donald Trump to deploy the military in a U.S. city. In both cases, the move was unjustified by any facts on the ground and is seen by all as a clear attempt by Mr. Trump to exert unaccountable power, using the threat of military force, to deny the lawful administration of public institutions at the local or state levels. This would seem to be very clearly an overt rejection of the U.S. Constitution in its entirety, along with the Bill of Rights.

At this writing, the five cities with the highest per-capita homicide rate in the United States are all in so-called “red states”—states Mr. Trump won and which are controlled by Republican administrations. The danger experienced in these cities is characteristic of places with laws that make acquiring firearms easy, while underinvesting in public services, including education, infrastructure, recreation, policing, and other emergency services.

Mr. Trump is not acting to counter that threat. Instead, he is attempting to use military force to occupy an American city. He is attempting to do what the British monarch did in the first half of the 1770s, when he wanted to negate the human rights of people living in what would later become the United States. 

The Bill of Rights is structured to create an open civic space in which military occupation by authoritarian forces is not possible. As we noted previously:

The Third Amendment bars the forced installation of military personnel in private homes, and by implication in the streets of American communities.

Mr. Trump is using lies and anti-immigrant hate to sow division. Many of his supporters, including those who sit in Congress and are sworn to uphold the Constitution, are consenting to put aside their conscience in service of that hate, those lies, and what appears to be an attempt to establish authoritarian rule in the United States.

Article I of the Constitution specifies that Congress—not the President—has authority over the District of Columbia, the nation’s capital. It also prohibits the suspension of Habeas Corpus, meaning no military detention, effort to circumvent due process, or summary sentencing, can be lawful on American streets.

No one can afford for this campaign against democracy to succeed. Even Mr. Trump would be far better off if all those enabling him would stop. He has no lawful authority to declare martial law—period. He has no right to occupy American cities, on any grounds. His allies have no lawful authority to replace elected officials from another party with allies so they can make laws that violate basic rights.

Each of these corrupt acts is a crime against American democracy which will live in infamy. No unconstitutional action can be treated by any court as “core Constitutional responsibilities” of the Presidency, and therefore no such acts can carry even partial immunity. All of us who love humanity, freedom, and democracy, must use our voices to say:

No. America has no king. We the people will choose our government, and that government will serve us and the law, and no one else.