Democracy and the Rule of Law Part 3: "Two Autocrats Taking Control"

Welcome to our third special replay episode of Higher Callings.  

In our first two episodes in this series on Democracy and the Rule of Law, we heard from Elizabeth Andersen and Karen Green of the World Justice Project about the Rule of Law and its downward trend in a majority of countries, including the United States. 

In this third episode, we’ll hear from Robert Cordy, a former federal prosecutor and civil litigation attorney and a retired Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. In an interview recorded in March 2023, I spoke with Bob about his extraordinary work with judges from Russia, Turkey, and other countries who were eager to learn about the American system of justice and its two key pillars, an independent judiciary and a free press. As Bob learned from these experiences, constitutional democracies are fragile, and efforts to establish and maintain a democracy can be shut down overnight by a ruler who views the courts and the press as threats to his power. It’s a lesson that those of us in the United States might take to heart as we head for the polls to vote in this year’s elections.  

As with the first two episodes of this series, the full episode of my interview with retired Justice Cordy is available wherever you get this podcast.