Justice louis brandeis of the united states supreme court said that governmental lawlessness was:

He said that it was contagious

What he meant by this is that the whole concept of the government is that it was built around the idea of the rule of law. If the government officials are lawless and don't adhere to the law, then they will be "contagious" and will get others who elected them to also be lawless and the whole country could become lawless.