Retired judges warn that the rule of law is unraveling

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

November 28, 2025 at 5:00 a.m. EST


When the White House blasted a federal judge as “partisan” for dismissing the criminal cases against former FBI director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James this week, it was an attack that has become common in President Donald Trump’s second term. For many retired federal and state supreme court judges, it was another example of the president’s assault on the judiciary and further erosion of the rule of law.

In a dozen interviews with The Washington Post, former judges and one soon-to-be-retired judge described a judiciary under incredible strain and its integrity threatened by partisan attacks, antagonistic rhetoric from public officials and ambiguous decisions handed down by the nation’s highest court.

Many judges said the politicization of judges, the Supreme Court’s expanding use of emergency dockets and sustained criticism from the Trump administration have pushed the courts and democracy to a fragile tipping point — one where cooperation with rulings and adherence to the rule of law can no longer be assumed.

“There’s not a person in our country that, whether they think about it or not, does not depend upon the ability of these fundamental rights and liberties to be protected in an action in court if there is someone who violates that,” said Paul Grimm, a retired judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The consequences, judges warn, are already becoming visible in who’s willing to serve as a jurist, global shifts in judicial norms and the types of justice the U.S. system can still deliver.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/11/28/judges-trump-administration-rule-of-law/

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[doc03]

1. It doesn't take a retired judge to figure that out. nt

[Irish_Dem]

2. Not the brightest bulbs are they? And half of them are the ones unraveling the rule of law.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. It's disheartening as an attorney.

You get a client. The facts and the law are in the favor of your client.

You go to trial. You win. Your adversary appeals.

Appellate Court: You win. Your adversary appeals.

State Supreme Court: You win. Your adversary appeals to the USSC. (Same thing with Federal Appellate Court)

Your client is running out of money.

You go before the USSC. All six of the majority and their law clerks know you're right. Even on Originalist Doctrine.

And SCOTUS rules against you. You should have won. Your client lost the bet and all the money. You feel as though you let your client down. But you relied on precedent and stare decisis.

And think if you're a law professor. How do you teach law that isn't recognized by SCOTUS?

[bronxiteforever]

4. K&R. The Robert's Supreme Court has been &

will be an ongoing cancer on the American government. Reformation of the Court is essential to any hope of bringing balance back to the law.

The overruling of precedent, the Kavanaugh stop decision, the Robert’s quest for a unitary executive government, the dismantling of civil rights, the erosion of judicial ethics and the flaunting of corruption and the power of ideological billionaire funded think tanks to set the agenda of the peoples court have fostered this dystopian political climate.

[Vthestate]

10. So some that post are unwilling to point out Who is causing the unrealing...the GOP the party of no

Please check the first two comments....try to figure who is causing the wrecking from their posts.... Aim is important....mealy whining is boring. The GOP with media help has frogotten about law governing and needs to be called out by name until shame kicks them out of office! You comment names names ...huraay!!!!

[Solly Mack]

5. No shit.

[mdbl]

6. Like I've said, we don't have a justice system any longer

Every fucking criminal on the planet is being released by the Dump administration like a bubonic plague being release into the public.

[Bayard]

7. trump does not believe in a 3-branch government, with equal powers

He empties his poopy diapers on rule of law.

[sakabatou]

8. Thank you, Capt. Obvious

[LudwigPastorius]

9. #YaThink?

[thought crime]

11. We've all seen it happening right in front of us.

At some point it may have been stopped if we had prioritized appointment of judges, as republicans do, and had been as ruthlessly hypocritical as them. And luck had something to do with it as well. Now it may be too late as republican judges in the Supreme Court force their agenda to keep power, letting rule of law fall to the wayside.