Law.com International tries to avoid being U.S.-centric, as we focus primarily on what’s going on in the legal world outside the U.S. But yesterday the U.S. celebrated Independence Day, commemorating the Declaration of Independence—a document that has become a moral standard and has inspired many subsequent similar declarations in other countries with the statement that “all men are created equal.” And given the news of the past week in the U.S., which has made headlines all over the world, it is impossible to put our main focus elsewhere. Even law firms, which do not operate in a bubble but are generally reluctant to embrace controversy, have responded and have been driven to act.

It was a trying week for Americans. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that struck down a law regulating the public carrying of guns at a time when the country is still reeling from two recent mass shootings. It also blurred the line separating Church and State—a legal principle that, as the daughter of immigrants who fled religious persecution, I always saw as sacrosanct. Then, as most of the world is making moves to curb emissions and save the planet, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to combat climate change. On top of all that, Americans learned more about what transpired on January 6 in Washington, confirming that then-President Donald Trump was willing to stage a coup to remain President in a country that has forever defined itself as a nation built on the peaceful transition of power.