A year ago, we editorialized on the shocking death of Alexei Navalny, the Russian human rights advocate and nemesis of Vladimir Putin whose life ended tragically in a Siberian prison camp. At the time, we noted that Navalny’s lawyers, two of whom had already fled Russia, were under siege themselves. All were charged with aiding Navalny by passing along his prison writings to his followers while he was awaiting transfer to Siberia, a move the lawyers fought heroically right up to the prison doors.

The chickens have now come home to roost. All five of the lawyers have been convicted (at a sham trial at which press coverage was suppressed) for aiding the leader of an “extremist” organization. They were sentenced respectively to 2 ½ - 5 ½ years in prison. The sentences have been condemned by E.U., Amnesty International and the State Department.

It is right to criticize Russia for its treatment of Putin’s political enemies, especially our compatriots at the bar. Yet we are reminded of the gospel of Matthew 7:3-5 where Jesus says: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” That principle remains apt: We need to acknowledge what is happening here.

At the highest levels of government, enemies’ lists have been prepared. Threats of prosecution, firings, and worse have been directed at the government’s perceived political opponents. The targets are our fellow citizens in every conceivable field including our representatives in Congress, the press, members of the bar and judiciary, local public officials and ordinary people who have faithfully performed their jobs. Those planned punitive measures are anti-American and dangerous. They are of a piece with the reward the president has bestowed on over a thousand Jan. 6 miscreants by issuing blanket pardons for the violent criminality they undertook in his name to thwart the peaceful transfer of power.

Those intertwined actions—striking down perceived political opponents while raising up America’s brownshirts—fly in the face of any notion of the rule of law and will result in intimidating good people in every realm of life from civic engagement. Maybe that has been the plan all along. It worked in Europe, Asia and South America. We cannot allow it to work here. Lawyers have a special role in holding the line against authoritarian injustice and repression and supporting the rule of law. That is our commission and we should act wherever we can. When we are demoralized, we should look for inspiration to Navalny’s lawyers who, knowing what was before them, soldiered on.