America’s March of 1000 Robes: A Way Out

Guest Post by Tanner Caplan

It has already happened…

A deceptive populist party has control of the government. The government amplifies its warped version of reality through cowed or collaborative media. The captured media normalizes or denies that the populist party endorses political violence while decrying the opposition as communists who have infiltrated the government. The populist party claims it must ignore longstanding laws to root out fraudulent civil servants. The civil servants are replaced not with the most capable, but with those who are best at promoting the populist party’s alternate version of reality. This process is repeated at any institution which could illustrate that meritocracy and seeking truth are more efficient than the party system, hollowing out universities, the sciences, and cultural institutions. Because the populist party’s actions are illegal, they attack the legitimacy and independence of the courts to solidify their power forever. (Applebaum 2020)

The populist party described above is not MAGA in America in 2025, but the Law and Justice Party (PiS) in Poland in 2015. By 2020, PiS had almost fatally compromised Poland’s judiciary with an array of procedural changes that gave PiS overwhelming control over Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal and the body tasked with protecting the independence of the judiciary (International Association of Judges 2023). PiS also attacked the independence of individual judges with a “muzzle-law” which sanctioned judges with dismissal for questioning the judicial nomination process. (International Association of Judges 2023) Miraculously, Poland stopped their democratic backsliding non-violently and voted PiS out of power in 2023. Out of many complex factors that led to the eventual victory, the most useful for America right now is the unified effort of Poland’s lawyers and judges to fight for their Constitution which began with The March of 1000 Robes.

Stripped of procedural and physical power, Polish advocates for democracy pivoted to preserve the rule of law with the powers they retained: unity, storytelling, and the inherent gravitas and urgency of judges breaking international norms against judges speaking instead of hearing. (Kacper Lisowski 2020) Hundreds of robed judges and lawyers from all over Europe united to march under a banner reading “Constitution”, backed up by at least twenty thousand citizens. (International Association of Judges 2023). Impressive in their uniform of judicial robes, they were a “rule of law army” (Kacper Lisowski 2020) John McMenamin, a judge of the Supreme Court of Ireland, distilled the judges’ position: “Judicial independence is fundamental to the rule of law. The rule of law is fundamental to freedom. Freedom is fundamental to the protection of every citizen.” (Kacper Lisowski 2020) They marched “not for one party or another” but “against systemic change that may affect future generations of Polish citizens.” (Kacper Lisowski 2020)

One thousand judges march for the rule of law and an independent judiciary.

Judges from 22 countries attended the event. In a documentary of the March, “A Thousand Robes” (see video above), the judges themselves seem overwhelmed by the power of the event. They remark, with a sense of surrealism, that they have never been on the streets in their gowns before. Tamara Trotman, a Dutch judge, said, “What is happening here is so exceptional that you can’t just sit and wait behind your desk.” One Polish lawyer remarked, “it was a euphoric sense of community.” That euphoric sense of community sustained the Polish lawyers and judges in continued advocacy for the rule of law for three years until PiS could be voted out.

America is not yet in as dire straits as Poland was in 2020, however, consensus is emerging that the rule of law is at risk here as well. In recent weeks, the American Bar Association, noted constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, and other scholars have rung alarm bells that if we are not currently in a full-blown constitutional crisis, we are dangerously close. (American Bar Association 2025; Liptak 2025) Meanwhile, those associated with the administration have been signaling that they will ignore court rulings, with Vice President Vance saying, “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” and “when the courts stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say: ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’” (Ward 2025; Savage and Kim 2025) In the absence of a Congress that is willing to impeach, there is no clear solution to a constitutional crisis. Many believe we must choose between three poor options: relying on the military to honor their oaths, rolling the dice that mass protests won’t turned into an excuse for martial law, or full-blown conflict.

Before resorting to these, a powerful path forward would be an American March of 1000 Robes. Imagine the National Mall packed with a thousand robed judges marching under the banner of the Constitution, waving flags from all fifty states and the territories, appointed by every President from Reagan to Obama to Trump himself. They would be backed up by the tens of thousands of lawyers who live and work in the DC area, followed by citizens. With one voice, the American legal community could say, “We will abide by our oaths to the Constitution. Shame on anyone who doesn’t.” We could make a clear and urgent argument that the rule of law is not a dry and dusty jumble of words but essential to our freedom and our well-being. We could create an overwhelming visual that would cut through the disinformation machine. If any community has the necessary temperament and organizational capacity to pull it off without remotely justifying a violent response, judges and lawyers should.

As in Poland, the March might not initially succeed, but it would create a visual, a story, and a community that will sustain us until we do succeed.

Some might counter that such an extreme gesture isn’t justified yet. While any movement like a March of 1000 Robes may benefit from waiting for a true constitutional crisis to emerge, we should not wait too long. Polish Judge Ivan Tuleya warns, “It turns out that defending the rule of law is easier than rebuilding it.” (Schmitz 2024)

Sources

American Bar Association. “ABA Condemns Remarks Questioning Legitimacy of Courts and Judicial Review.” 2025.

Applebaum, Anne. 2020. Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism. Knopf.

International Association of Judges. 2023. “Letter in Support of International Day of Judicial Independence.”

Kacper Lisowski. 2020. A Thousand Robes [film]. Poland: Producent Filmowy Lollipop Films.

Liptak, Adam. 2025. “Trumpʼs Actions Have Created a Constitutional Crisis, Scholars Say.”

Savage, Charlie, and Minho Kim. 2025. “Vance Says ʻJudges Arenʼt Allowed to Controlʼ Trumpʼs ʻLegitimate Powerʼ.” New York Times, 2025.

Schmitz, Rob. 2024. “Poland’s Judiciary Was a Tool of Its Government. New Leaders Are Trying to Undo That.” NPR. 2024.

Ward, Ian. 2025. “There’s No Need to Guess. JD Vance Is Ready to Ignore the Courts.” Politico.

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Guest post by Tanner Caplan
Keep up with Tanner at How to Cook a Hippopotamus 
Interdisciplinary writing on inventive solutions to challenging times. Inspired by MFK Fisher. Lawyer by training with a background in political science.
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