We are exactly six months away from March 4th, a significant date in U.S. history.

Until 1936, March 4th was when presidential inaugurations were held. Lawmakers chose that date because it was the one on which, in 1789, the Constitution went into effect.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson explains why March 4th may soon become historically significant for a new set of reasons:

After making it clear that she would run her courtroom in the interests of justice without reference to the 2024 presidential election, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has set March 4, 2024, as the start date for former president Trump’s trial on four criminal counts for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. 

“Overturn the results of the president election” equals “overthrow the Constitution.” The same Constitution that went into effect on March 4, 1789.

Let that sink in a bit. Irony is sometimes too wonderful for words.

Trump’s lawyers, of course, had asked for a very long lead time before the trial, setting their preferred date as April 2026. Judge Chutkan “wasn’t having any of Trump’s histrionics about the trial date,” notes former United States Attorney Joyce Vance. “And, she took his lawyer to task for inaccuracies in the arguments that were made in the pleadings,” including using one example misleadingly where SHE is overseeing the case.

Judge Chutkan was not misled, “one of the many virtues of putting experienced lawyers on the bench.”

With the trial of US vs. Donald J. Trump officially on the court’s docket, we all have time to read the indictment and educate ourselves so that we’re informed and can enter into conversations with the facts. And there will be plenty of misleading statements to sort through, including the prevalent one that the trial is about the former president’s First Amendment right to free speech. Richardson sets that straight.

Those charges are not about anything Trump said. The 45-page indictment acknowledges Trump’s right to speak about the election and even to lie that he had won, and the Department of Justice did not charge him with incitement. The indictment charges Trump with being part of three conspiracies: one to defraud the United States by “using dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” to stop the lawful government function of determining the results of a presidential election, a second conspiracy to obstruct the lawful January 6 congressional proceeding to count and certify the results of the presidential election, and a third conspiracy to take away from other Americans “a right and privilege secured to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States — that is, the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted.”  

March 4th is also my birthday.

Next year promises to bring me a birthday like no other. Donald Trump, “who seemed to endlessly escape responsibility and accountability for even the worst misconduct while in office will face a jury of his peers on charges that he tried to steal the 2020 election.”

As someone who cares about the fragility of our democracy, I’ll take this show of strength by the rule of law as a birthday gift. Vance has added, “It’s fitting justice, even though it has taken a long time to get here.”

More to come …

DJB

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UPDATE: A good friend told me that John F. Kennedy said that “March 4th is the only date that is also a command!” Another historical reference. And if you Google this on the internet, you’ll find a lot of posts like this which encourage us to use the day to do something you have always wanted to do or to do something that you know needs to be done.

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“Gavel” by Andrew F. Scott is a 31 foot steel gavel and sound block located in the south reflecting pool outside the Supreme Court of Ohio. The sculpture is constructed entirely from stainless steel and it is the largest gavel in the world. Image by timokefoto from Pixabay.