For Carl Schmitt, laws and constitutions didn’t arise from moral principles. At their basis, there was always a sovereign authority, a decision-maker. US Attorney General William Barr’s defense of unchecked executive authority in his recent speech to the Federalist Society thus had an unpleasant familiarity. Barr’s view is the final reductio ad Schmitt of our political era. As US attorney general, at the head of the Justice Department, he is charged with upholding the rule of law, but he admires only lawlessness in moments of crisis. At these “critical junctures,” which “demand speed, secrecy, unity of purpose, and prudent judgment,” Barr sees the presidency, the vital heart of American power, acting decisively in order to bring a wider reckoning with “final things.”
