Happy 2026. I hope it turns out that way. I am counting on all of you to keep your legal minds razor sharp because I think there is a lot coming your way in 2026.
I have to say I am suspect about the way it is starting out. And, as a student of history, my thoughts turn to Marie Antoinette at times like this.
You may recall Marie as the wife of Louis XVI and the Queen of France under his reign. Although she is lauded as having been a better leader than Louis in many respects, she is best remembered for her indifference to the masses, who were suffering while the Crown spent opulently on palaces, brocades, and opera glasses. When confronted with the needs of her people, specifically that they were starving and had no bread to eat, Marie responded “Let them eat cake.”
Suffice to say that things did not turn out well for Marie and Louis.
Not a student of French history? No problem. You don’t have to be. Just remember that, as lawyers, you have special tools to consider and ponder when similar events arise.
Now if you think I am referring to Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and his wife Celia Flores and their own cruel brand of indifference to the masses in Venezuela, I am not. Although I abhor the way the people of Venezuela have suffered under the Maduro regime, my analogy is much closer to home.
Think about what is happening in our own country. Perhaps, as an American citizen, you care about the basic needs of our own masses and issues like food insecurity, inadequate and unaffordable healthcare, and how families are being torn apart and injured by immigration policies that are inhumane.
If that is the case, perhaps you should think about how those issues and others are being ignored while our president is building monuments to himself, gilding the White House, and playing emperor for a term …. or more if he has it his way.
Consider the plans for the new East Wing, the Arc de Trump he is planning to erect somewhere in your Capitol City, the Imperialistic-style and arguably illegal takeover of Venezuela, and now the obsession to take over Greenland, which is “inconveniently” owned by Denmark, a NATO ally. And contrast that to what appears to be an attitude of indifference about the many more mundane issues that involve the basic care taking of the American people.
Those mundane issues take attention for certain, but they also require money to address and solve. Will that be possible as our public treasure is being depleted to “run” another country? Although you will hear that private donors are expected to pay the freight for some of what is being done or planned by the Administration, you may want to keep your eye on the public treasure that is funded by US taxpayers and how it may be drawn down to support these operations. If you think that US oil companies are going to pay for it all, think again. To date, they don’t appear to be too enthusiastic. So now that we are in for more than a penny and what is likely more than a pound in Venezuela, what happens next? Keep your ears attuned to what may become the sucking sound of depletion of the US treasury.
There is a lot to think about in 2026. All I know in these first few days is that ignoring the needs of the People should have consequences because it is the People’s United States of America. And there is precedent in history for ignoring the People.
This is where your legal and communal skills need to kick in. Read. Analyze. Discuss. It is no time to just stick your head in the sand and wish for a better day. The legal profession is no place for Pollyannas.
