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“This administration is using all the tools it has to stifle dissent, that if you challenge them, they’re going to set out the machinery of the government against you,” said Harold Krent, a Chicago-Kent College of Law professor who has worked at the Department of Justice. “You’ll have to hire an attorney, miss work, you might be frightened — and maybe they’ll get an indictment once in a while.”

“It’s an enormous problem that federal officials are in some ways the hardest people to hold accountable for violating people’s constitutional rights, even harder than state and local officials,” said Carolyn Shapiro, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law and a former solicitor general of Illinois.

“Alexa, will you marry me?” When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos reported in 2016 that over 250,000 people had proposed to their Alexa devices, commentators laughed it off. But by 2026, people have said, “I do,” to avatars, chatbots and robots in ceremonies around the world.