The rule of law means the law binds those who govern as much as the governed. In my reading the United States has lost ground on it, and the loss can be measured.
The World Justice Project scores 143 countries each year. In its 2025 index the U.S. ranks 27th. Its score fell for the third year running, on seven of eight measures, and the fall was the sixth largest in the world. Two of those three years fell under Joe Biden, who pardoned his own son after saying he would not. But since 2016 the U.S. score for limits on government power has dropped from 0.81 to 0.63.
Acts explain the numbers. On his first day back, Donald Trump pardoned some 1,500 people charged over the January 6 attack, including rioters convicted of violence against police. Four days later he fired 17 inspectors general, the watchdogs inside federal agencies. A federal judge later found the firings unlawful.
He signed orders punishing law firms whose clients or causes he disliked, and four judges out of four struck them down as unconstitutional. His Justice Department indicted two of his adversaries, a former FBI director and New York’s attorney general. A judge threw out both cases because the prosecutor had been unlawfully appointed.
His supporters have an answer. The pardon power is the president’s alone. Inspectors general serve at his pleasure. All true.
But the rule of law was never only about what is legal. It rests on restraint: powers held, and not used against enemies or for friends. When courts must say “unlawful” this often, restraint is what has gone.
Pew found 17% of Americans trusting Washington in September 2025, and the share has not passed 30% since 2007. But low trust is why this matters. A public that expects nothing from government will not defend it, and that suits those who profit from weak rules.
The courts held in every case above, and observers call the whole episode a stress test. By January 2026 one tracker of many had counted 552 cases against the administration’s actions, more than one a day. A stress test is meant to be run once, on purpose, by people who want the system to pass. No system is built to carry this load for years. The checks among the branches held. They are worth defending before they are needed again.