<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-td-post-header"><header class="gmail-td-post-title">
                <h1 class="entry-title">Sujit Choudhry from the Center 
for Constitutional Transitions on Eric Holder’s Tweet in the Contexts of
 a Disintegrating Democracy</h1>

                

                <div class="gmail-td-module-meta-info">
                    <div class="gmail-td-post-author-name"><div class="gmail-td-author-by">By</div> <a href="http://releasefact.com/author/releasefact/">Brian Harris</a><div class="gmail-td-author-line"> - </div> </div>                    <span class="gmail-td-post-date"><time class="entry-date gmail-updated gmail-td-module-date" datetime="2018-03-08T20:55:44+00:00">March 8, 2018</time></span>                    <div class="gmail-td-post-comments"><a href="http://releasefact.com/2018/03/sujit-choudhry-disintegrating-democracy/#respond"><i class="gmail-td-icon-comments"></i>0</a></div>                    <div class="gmail-td-post-views"><i class="gmail-td-icon-views"></i><span class="gmail-td-nr-views-1064">42</span></div>                </div>

            </header>


        </div>

        <div class="gmail-td-post-sharing gmail-td-post-sharing-top">
                                <div class="gmail-td-default-sharing">
                            <a class="gmail-td-social-sharing-buttons gmail-td-social-facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Freleasefact.com%2F2018%2F03%2Fsujit-choudhry-disintegrating-democracy%2F"><i class="gmail-td-icon-facebook"></i><div class="gmail-td-social-but-text">Share on Facebook</div></a>
                            <a class="gmail-td-social-sharing-buttons gmail-td-social-twitter" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Sujit+Choudhry+from+the+Center+for+Constitutional+Transitions+on+Eric+Holder%E2%80%99s+Tweet+in+the+Contexts+of+a+Disintegrating+Democracy&url=http%3A%2F%2Freleasefact.com%2F2018%2F03%2Fsujit-choudhry-disintegrating-democracy%2F&via=Release+Fact"><i class="gmail-td-icon-twitter"></i><div class="gmail-td-social-but-text">Tweet on Twitter</div></a>
                            <a class="gmail-td-social-sharing-buttons gmail-td-social-google" href="https://plus.google.com/share?url=http://releasefact.com/2018/03/sujit-choudhry-disintegrating-democracy/"><i class="gmail-td-icon-googleplus"></i></a>
                            <a class="gmail-td-social-sharing-buttons gmail-td-social-pinterest" href="https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http://releasefact.com/2018/03/sujit-choudhry-disintegrating-democracy/&media=http://releasefact.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/sujit1.jpeg&description=Sujit+Choudhry+from+the+Center+for+Constitutional+Transitions+on+Eric+Holder%E2%80%99s+Tweet+in+the+Contexts+of+a+Disintegrating+Democracy"><i class="gmail-td-icon-pinterest"></i></a>
                            
                    </div></div>

        <div class="gmail-td-post-content">
            <div class="gmail-td-featured-image-rec">

            <div class="gmail-td-post-featured-image"><a href="http://releasefact.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/sujit1.jpeg" class="gmail-td-modal-image"><img class="entry-thumb gmail-td-animation-stack-type0-2" src="http://releasefact.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/sujit1.jpeg" alt="Sujit Choudhry" title="" width="293" height="172"></a></div>            </div>

            <p>Professor Sujit Choudhry is an internationally renowned scholar whose research addresses a wide spectrum of issues in <a href="https://ceocfointerviews.com/interviews/CenterforConstitutionalTransitions17.htm">comparative constitutional law</a>
 and politics. This includes constitutional design as a tool to manage 
the transition from violent conflict to peaceful democratic politics, 
constitutional design in ethnically divided societies, federalism, 
decentralization and secession, semi-presidentialism, constitutional 
courts and transitional justice, official language policy, minority and 
group rights, bills of rights, constitutional design in the context of 
transitions from authoritarian to democratic rule; constitution building
 processes, security sector oversight and basic methodological questions
 in the study of comparative constitutional law. He has also written 
extensively on Canadian constitutional law.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>His <a href="https://works.bepress.com/sujit_choudhry/">most recent publication</a> is a book chapter that is planned for release in <em>Constitutional Democracies in Crisis</em>?
 In particular, Choudhry focuses on a tweet by Eric Holder, the former 
Attorney General under President Obama, that was published to his 
followers in December of 2017. In it, Holder called any potential 
termination of White House Special Counsel Robert Mueller an “absolute 
red line.” He also suggested that, should anything happen, peaceful 
demonstrations should ensue. “If removed or meaningfully tampered with, 
there must be mass, popular, peaceful support of both. The American 
people must be seen and heard – they will ultimately be determinative,” 
Holder wrote in his tweet.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>According to Choudhry’s dissection of Holder’s tweet, the Attorney 
General’s call to action is based upon two concepts – one being the 
symbolic “red line,” or an uncontroversial constitutional boundary in 
American democracy, and the other concept being that Holder leaves it up
 to the American people to determine whether officials have indeed 
abused their authority and transgressed said boundary. What is more, 
Choudhry underlines that Holder insinuates that the reaction of the 
American people will determine how the issue is resolved – that is, 
whether the crossing of the red line will be upheld or reversed.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Choudhry points out that Holder’s tweet is built on the idea of 
“constitutional self-enforcement, built around the concept of a focal 
point.” And as constitutions are governing expectations of officials and
 citizens that revolve around the appropriateness of the behavior of 
public authority by focusing on focal points, or constitutional rules. 
Furthermore, violations of these constitutional rules does not warrant a
 court to label them as such, and Choudhry expresses a sense of surprise
 in Holder’s tweet. He writes, “Indeed, it is striking that Holder, once
 the nation’s chief law enforcement official, does not even mention a 
legal challenge to attempts to obliterate Mueller’s authority, even in a
 supporting role.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>According to Professor Choudhry, another example of a focal point is a
 presidential term limit that, in the United States and across the 
world, limits an individual to a total of two terms as president. He 
goes on to write that an autocrat would want to break that focal point –
 or constitutional rule – by attempting to stay in office for longer 
“declaring a state of emergency, dissolving the legislature, and/or 
suspending elections.  It is clear when this is happening, and more 
often than not, attempts to do will lead political opponents to mobilize
 against such attempts, and bring citizens into the streets.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Choudhry writes that when taken within a specific context, Holder’s 
‘red lines’ can be considered an example of a democratic failure. He 
further writes, “Disregarding term limits are one example of a more 
general category termed the self-coup or <em>autogolpe</em>, which is an
 attempt by directly elected executives to extend their power once 
elected, invoking a democratic mandate from the people.  Another is the 
outright unconstitutional seizure of power without any electoral 
legitimacy, in a <em>coup d’état</em> (for example, by the military).  A
 third is blatant electoral fraud by incumbents to maintain the façade 
of democratic legitimacy.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sujit Choudhry is an <a href="http://www.indiawest.com/news/global_indian/u-c-berkeley-law-professor-sujit-choudhry-co-edits-new/article_163b28d6-e9a6-11e6-a1f5-f7dfdfa8c09d.html">internationally recognized authority</a>
 on comparative constitutional law and politics whose research focus 
spans across a wide variety of comparative constitutional law and 
politics issues. He combines a wide-ranging research agenda with 
in-depth field experience as an advisor to constitution building 
processes, including in Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Nepal, South Africa, Sri 
Lanka, Tunisia, Ukraine and Yemen. He has lectured or spoken in over two
 dozen countries.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Choudhry’s other involvements include an I. Michael Heyman 
Professorship of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. His 
prior engagements include working as constitutional advisor to emerging 
democracies across the world, during which he amended existing 
constitutions and drafted new ones. He is currently also a member of the
 United Nations Mediation Roster and consultant to the World Bank 
Institute at the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Choudhry has also been a constitutional advisor for over two decades.
 He is expert in facilitating public dialogue sessions with civil 
society groups and other stakeholders, leading stakeholder 
consultations, performing detailed advisory work with technical experts,
 training civil servants and bureaucrats, engaging party leaders and 
parliamentarians, and drafting technical reports and memoranda in the 
field.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Choudhry is the founding director of the <a href="http://www.constitutionaltransitions.org/">Center for Constitutional Transitions</a>
 that to date has collaborated with over 50 experts from more than 25 
countries. It partners with a global network of multilateral 
organizations, think tanks, and NGOs. He is currently also a member of 
the United Nations Mediation Roster and consultant to the World Bank 
Institute at the World Bank and the <a href="https://www.wzb.eu/en/personen/sujit-choudhry">United Nations Development Program</a>.</p>
        </div>

<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies                     <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone:  (215) 898-7475<br>Fax:  (215) 573-2138                                      <br><br>Email:  <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a>    <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
</div>