[Chicks]

The Weimar Republic has a warning for the U.S. about its judges
It’s dangerous to have a conservative judiciary hostile to democracy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-...imar-republic/

The Weimar Republic, Germany’s first experiment with democracy, was a frail creature. After all, it collapsed into Nazism only 14 years after its creation. But what you might not know is that Germany’s judges were deeply complicit in the republic’s demise. While we tend to think of courts as the guardrails of democracy, in 1920s Germany they were among its most implacable and insidious enemies. And their role in the rise of Nazism holds an important lesson for us as we confront a radically conservative Supreme Court that seems intent on undermining our own democracy today.

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Judges’ antagonism toward the republic was never more evident that in their handling of right-wing terrorism. The early years of the republic were a profoundly violent time, as demobilized soldiers returned home and joined paramilitary organizations known as the Freikorps. Putsches and rebellions cascaded across the country, and political assassinations were the order of the day. Between 1919 and 1923, far-right terrorists assassinated at least 400 people. But while courts happily threw the book at leftists involved in communist uprisings, they responded mildly to right-wing vigilantes. On average, courts sentenced right-wing assassins to a mere four months in prison; leftists received on average 15 years.