Vengeance and the Erosion of Constitutional Order: From Rule of Law to Rule by Retribution

This paper examines the constitutional and ethical implications of a retaliatory state emerging within the United States—a system in which the instruments of law are systematically repurposed as instruments of vengeance. Focusing on the prosecutions of John Bolton, James Comey, and Letitia James, the study argues that political retaliation has evolved from a momentary abuse of discretion into a structural pathology undermining the moral and institutional foundations of the Republic.Drawing upon landmark Supreme Court decisions—United States v. Nixon, Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, Hartman v. Moore, and United States v. Armstrong—the paper situates the current crisis within the broader historical continuum of republics that decayed under the weight of their own legality. It introduces a four-stage model of constitutional self-destruction: legalized retaliation, politicized justice, trust erosion, and institutional hollowing. This model demonstrates how retribution, when normalized through executive discretion and judicial complacency, transforms constitutional governance into a competition of punishments.Ultimately, the paper warns that the American constitutional order is eroding not through open defiance but through obedience to power detached from ethics. The Republic now faces the danger of an electoral autocracy—a system that preserves democratic rituals while rewarding the most ruthless with legitimacy. The work concludes with a moral appeal: that citizens, legislators, and institutions must reject the normalization of political retribution before the Constitution survives only as a ceremonial relic rather than a living covenant.---**Version:** 1.0 — Initial Analytical Draft (October 2025) **License:** Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0). Reproduction and citation are permitted with proper attribution. No modifications, abridgments, or derivative works are authorized. **Series:** This paper is part of *The Constitutional Frontier* series on constitutional responsibility.