Politicians and journalists love to talk about “norms.” It makes them sound responsible, which they frequently are not. It makes them sound normal, which they rarely are. It gives them room to maneuver. Laws are changed in public by legal and legislative arguments. You can watch it happen in real-time on C-SPAN if you can stay awake. Common law is often called “customary law.” It develops interpretations from precedents of custom. However, custom is an unwritten constitution of habits and assumptions. To understand custom, you need an anthropologist, not a lawyer.
The psychodrama of the first Trump term derived from anti-Trumpers’ confusion between the customary norms of law and the habitual norms of custom. There was and is no serious evidence that President-elect Donald Trump broke the law when he ran and won in 2016. However, it was undeniable that his mere presence in the race violated the managerial customs of Washington, D.C. That was central to his appeal. It remained central to his victory this year on Nov. 5.
