Iowa’s members of the Electoral College don’t have to vote for Donald Trump

The Constitution gives members of the Electoral College a right to decide who gets their vote for President. While some states have (unconstitutional) laws purporting to bind the votes of their electors, Iowa does not. Instead, we have a long-standing tradition of civic virtue and a world-famous caucus system that encourages deliberation and independent judgment in the choice of our leaders.

As Alexander Hamilton emphasized in Federalist no. 68, the Electoral College is to exercise that same independent judgment in protecting the United States from the threat of a President who would not comply with his oath to preserve the Constitution. Iowa's electors should exercise that right, replacing Mr. Trump with (out of due respect for the will of the People) another Republican.

There is evidence from Mr. Trump's actions during and after the campaign that he is unwilling to govern in a way that is compatible with the continuation of our free democratic Constitution.

A President must respect the First Amendment, and the rights of his political opponents, the press, and the public at large to scrutinize his actions.

Mr. Trump has threatened to unconstitutionally 'loosen up the libel laws” to punish his critics, and his campaign manager has threatened to sue the Senate Minority Leader. He falsely alleged that the media 'incited” 'professionals” to protest his election. He encouraged violence against protesters at his campaign events, saying of one protester that 'maybe he should have been roughed up” and urging his supporters to 'knock the crap out of” others. And he most recently made the unprecedented proposal to strip citizenship from flag-burners.

A President must respect the rule of law and the independent judiciary.

Mr. Trump alleged, with no evidence, that a federal judge was biased against him on account of the judge's race. He threatened to imprison his opponent in the general election, and 'jokingly” encouraged a hostile foreign power to spy on that same opponent's emails.

A President must separate his personal interests from those of the American people.

Mr. Trump refused to disclose his financial conflicts of interest during the election, and plans to turn over his businesses, not to a blind trust, but to his children. His daughter has already joined Mr. Trump in conversations with Japanese and Argentinian leaders. Mr. Trump has reportedly used his status as presumptive President-elect to pressure regulators in Argentina and Britain to favor his business interests. Right after the election, he began holding events for foreign diplomats at his hotels, at which he advertised his other properties. And he just paid a 25 million dollar settlement for fraud.

Most importantly, a President must respect the democratic process itself, accepting its results even when they do not go his way.

But Mr. Trump told his supporters, with no evidence, that the election would be 'rigged,” encouraged his supporters to show up at the polls to 'monitor” other voters, and refused, in the third debate, to commit to accepting the result of the election if he lost.

Those acts show that Mr. Trump has no intention of governing in accordance with the basic American principles of democracy and the rule of law.

History teaches us that even long-standing constitutional institutions can be surprisingly fragile. Many a democracy has fallen at the hands of a strongman who buys allies with money corruptly taken from the public, uses official and private violence to punish his opponents, and undermines the electoral and judicial institutions that would stand in his way - just like Mr. Trump looks to be planning.

Democracy and the rule of law can be preserved only if the people can trust that their institutions will come to their defense. And one of those institutions is the electoral college, given to us by the wisdom of the Constitutional founders for just such a moment. Iowa's Electors have a historic opportunity to reinforce the state's role as a center of democratic virtue and the protection of our Constitutional order.

Texas Republican Elector Art Sisneros has already courageously stepped down rather than vote for Mr. Trump. Iowa's electors should lead the country in the next step, and publicly commit to voting for someone else.

' Paul Gowder is a constitutional law professor at the University of Iowa, and the author of the 2016 book, The Rule of Law in the Real World. He obviously speaks only for himself. More information: http://paul-gowder.com