‘Endangered lawyer’ day highlights US justice system’s plummeting standing

The Guardian of Law statue outside the US supreme court in Washington. A new report has named the US as a country where the rule of law is under threat. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

The US has been awarded a new dubious distinction: it has been selected as this year’s focus of an international coalition of legal groups and bar associations as a country where lawyers and judges are so politically intimidated that the rule of law is under threat.

The decision to put the spotlight on the US for Thursday’s “International Day of the Endangered Lawyer” underlines how rapidly America has plummeted in global esteem. For decades the US has been held up as a role model of a democratic judicial system.