A metaphoric expression that implies the image of a public trial to a party who has been judged guilty, to which it has to show certain defense in order to emerge unaffected or unscathed. If the party does not challenge and overcome the trial, its judgement as guilty will persist.

To run the gauntlet means to be subject to a form of corporal punishment where the guilty is forcibly made to run between two lines of soldiers, who stage an assault with sticks or other weapons, while the guilty does it best to fend off and escape the attacks, with minimal damage or entirely unscathed.