Grand Juries Are Saving Democracy

The entrance to the Supreme Court building announces “Equal Justice Under Law,” but it hasn’t felt like SCOTUS represented that American value for quite some time—roughly since Bush v. Gore in December 2000, even more so since gutting the Voting Rights Act in Shelby in 2013, and especially since the John Roberts court declared, in 2024, that the president is immune from punishment for “official acts,” even those demonstrably illegal, while in office.

Meanwhile, an undersung underpinning to American justice has repeatedly emerged as the hero in this second, lawless Donald Trump administration: local grand juries, most famous for the slur that they’ll easily indict a ham sandwich. That was never (uniformly) true, but the low expectation of rigor has served to focus attention on the ways these ordinary citizens have courageously stood up to Trump when so many elites, including universities, law firms, the GOP Congress, and six of nine SCOTUS justices, have caved.

The most recent grand jury victory for democracy came late Tuesday afternoon, when a Washington, DC, panel refused to indict six Democratic Congresspersons, all military veterans, who recorded an ad reminding their military and intelligence community colleagues that they are not obliged to obey illegal orders from their superiors. The stirring ad, titled “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” merely repeated language common to US military training courses since World War II.

The FBI had been investigating all six: Senators Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, along with Representatives Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is conducting his own petty jihad against Kelly, formally censuring him and docking his retirement pay. “[Kelly] released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth claimed last month. The grand jury can’t undo Hegseth’s frat-boy grandstanding, but it protects all six from prosecution.

Prosecution on what grounds has never been clear. Trump immediately pronounced their move “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Barely hinged Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro, now unbelievably serving as US Attorney in Washington, DC, approached the grand jury trying to argue that the lawmakers “violated a statute that forbids interfering with the loyalty, morale or discipline of the U.S. armed forces,” according to The New York Times.

Remember that local grand juries also refused to indict the Subway sandwich-throwing hero, Sean Dunn, New York Attorney General Letitia James (twice), and multiple ICE observers outside Chicago’s Broadview detention facility.

After the grand jury’s decision, Mark Kelly declared, “This is an outrageous abuse of power by Donald Trump and his lackeys. Trump wants every American to be too scared to speak out.”

Jason Crow went further: “If these fuckers think that they’re going to intimidate us and threaten and bully me into silence, and they’re going to go after political opponents and get us to back down, they have another thing coming. The tide is turning.”

Let’s hope so. Attorney General Pam Bondi is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday to answer questions about her lawless department. She should get some good ones. Maybe even from Republicans?