Message from Dean Gerken on the Rule of Law
Dean Heather K. Gerken sent the below message to the Yale Law School community on April 4, 2025.
Dear Members of the Yale Law School Community,
As a scholar of constitutional law and democracy and an educator charged with training the next generation of lawyers, I write today to reaffirm the enduring values of this institution and our profession.
For lawyers to play their time-honored role in protecting the vulnerable and vindicating legal rights, they must be able to represent clients without fearing threats, intimidation, or retribution, no matter the clients they represent or the causes they aim to vindicate.
Just as legal representation is foundational to the rule of law, so too is the work of judges. Courts have long been a place where individuals stand on equal footing with their government despite its awesome power. Our legal system depends on the ability of judges to resolve legal questions independently, safely outside the shadow cast by threats of reprisal or attack. No party to a case should disregard an order of a court. The appropriate response to disagreement is — as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has recently emphasized — to appeal that order and not to impeach the judge who issued it.
Last, lawyers must fiercely protect due process and free speech, two bedrock commitments of our constitutional democracy.
These basic principles of our profession matter to every citizen and supply protections that Americans rely on every day. I am deeply committed to ensuring these critical values remain a central part of our students’ education
Sincerely,
Heather K. Gerken
Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law
