The Yale Law Journal

Democratic Legitimacy

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“Safety, in a Republican Sense”:
Trump v. United States, Democracy, and an Antisubordination Theory of the Criminal Law

Jacob Abolafia

Democratic governance requires holding the powerful to account. This Essay therefore proposes a broad antisubordination theory of the criminal law which grapples directly with disparities in power, rather than obscuring them under the guise of formal equality. Neither formal equality nor its alterna…