The cost of lawfare

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. 

Recent revelations about selective prosecutions, uneven sentencing, and politically charged investigations are renewing an old debate in American life:
Can the justice system stay truly blind to politics?


WORLD commentator Daniel Suhr says equal justice under law means more than carving words into a marble building.

DANIEL SUHR: Equal justice under law.

That core principle of the American republic is violated when political motivations result in unequal justice—when people are targeted not for what they have done, but for who they are.

This week, President Trump, members of his family, and the Trump Organization settled a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service. The case arose out of the unlawful leak of confidential tax-return information. 

The broader conversation surrounding that case has renewed debate about political retaliation, selective enforcement, and the growing use of lawfare in American life.

Vice President J.D. Vance defended the administration’s approach this week:

VANCE: This is about compensating Americans for the lawfare that we saw under the last administration. And by the way, anybody can apply for it. Republicans can apply for it, Democrats can apply for it …

The issue reaches beyond any single case.

The Department of Justice recently released a report examining enforcement of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances—the FACE Act—during the Biden administration.

Congress originally passed the law as a bipartisan compromise. It created federal criminal penalties for obstructing or vandalizing abortion clinics, pro-life pregnancy centers, and houses of worship.

But according to the report, enforcement was far from even.

During four years under President Biden, the Justice Department brought more than 20 cases against over 45 pro-life demonstrators. Meanwhile, attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers and churches after the Dobbs leak and Supreme Court's decision resulted in comparatively few prosecutions.

The report also found that nonviolent pro-life defendants often received substantially harsher sentences than abortion activists charged under the same law.

That is exactly the kind of unequal justice that damages public trust in the rule of law.

Again, here's Vice President Vance:

VANCE: Let's not prosecute people because they said the wrong thing, or because they had the wrong political candidate, or because they had the wrong viewpoint. And I think part of that, part of turning the page on that is to actually ensure the real victims of that lawfare receive some compensation.

A healthy republic depends on citizens who are willing to participate in public life—to speak, organize, campaign, protest, serve in government, and stand publicly for what they believe.

Theodore Roosevelt famously praised “the man in the arena.” But fewer people will enter that arena if they believe the legal system itself will be used as a weapon against them.

VANCE: We’re trying to compensate people where the book was thrown at them, they were mistreated by the legal system.

When public engagement carries the threat of crushing legal bills, aggressive prosecution, or years of investigation, many capable people simply decide it is safer to stay away from politics altogether.

And that, my friends, is bad for any republic.

Americans will always disagree passionately about abortion, elections, public morality, and political power. But equal justice requires that the law be applied evenly, regardless of ideology or party.

Otherwise, we drift toward a system where political identity—not equal protection—determines how aggressively laws are enforced.

The old saying often attributed to Stalin’s secret police captures the danger well: “Show me the man, and I’ll find you the crime.”

No free society can flourish under that kind of thinking.

For WORLD, I’m Daniel Suhr.

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