The trial of New York attorney general Letitia James’s civil-fraud case against Donald Trump is predictably descending into chaos. We could not get through the second day of a trial expected to take up to three months without a constitutionally dubious gag order issued by Judge Arthur Engoron over a characteristically obnoxious social-media post by the former president.
What keeps trials orderly, what undergirds the authority of the trial judge, is the understanding that a legal proceeding is under way. In a proper legal proceeding, the judge projects probity, reinforcing the litigants’ understanding that it is in their self-interest to adhere to rules of law and decorum. The failure to do so earns the hostility of the court and triggers the punitive features of the process. Generally, bad behavior ends in both defeat and the imposition of penalties more severe than would otherwise have been imposed.
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