CNN reports that federal judges in Rhode Island took the unusual step of appointing a special counsel to investigate alleged misconduct by a senior Justice Department attorney in an immigration case. The piece situates the appointment within a broader pattern: judges in Chicago, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C., have tried to hold the Trump Justice Department …
The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Washington, DC’s attorney disciplinary authorities over their recommendation to disbar Jeffrey Clark, a Trump ally and former assistant attorney general, for his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results. Clark had drafted a letter urging Georgia’s state legislature to investigate alleged election irregularities and potentially appoint electors …
President Trump’s legal battle to sanction four major law firms—Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey, and WilmerHale—continues after an appellate court heard arguments Thursday on whether to uphold lower-court decisions blocking the sanctions. The firms targeted attorneys who had opposed Trump or been associated with prosecutors who investigated the president. Paul Clement, representing the …
CBS News reports that Judge Lady Gissela Pachar Huanga of the Santa Rosa Criminal Judicial Unit was shot and killed on May 11 in Machala, Ecuador, while travelling by car to a gym. Her assigned bodyguards were not present at the time of the attack. According to the reporting, Pachar had received death threats since …
Published May 8 in TIME, this essay surveys a global wave of state-sponsored attacks on lawyers, framing them as a deliberate authoritarian tactic to disable democratic checks. It highlights the April 2026 re-arrest of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh — a Sakharov Prize laureate previously sentenced to 33 years and 148 lashes — and …
The International Association of Legal Ethics is hosting a conference in Berlin on June 25-26, 2026, titled “The Legal Profession in Times of Rule of Law and Democratic Backsliding.” Bringing together lawyers, judges, legal scholars, and bar association leaders from around the world, the conference will examine how legal professionals can defend democratic institutions and …
Kathleen Rubenstein, executive director of the Skadden Foundation (which administers the prestigious Skadden Fellows program), has resigned over law firm Skadden’s $100 million settlement with Trump that includes a commitment to fund at least five Skadden Fellows annually who represent a range of political views including conservative perspectives. Rubenstein stated she chose to resign rather …
An Associated Press analysis published May 2, 2026 found that during the second Trump administration’s first 15 months, district court judges have ruled the executive branch in violation of court orders in at least 31 separate lawsuits — roughly one of every eight cases in which courts have at least temporarily blocked administration action. Cited …
Broadcast on May 1, 2026, this WXXI public-radio program convenes retired federal and state judges to assess the state of judicial independence in the United States as the country approaches its 250th anniversary. Participants distinguish between ordinary public criticism of judicial decisions, which they characterize as constitutionally healthy, and a newer phenomenon in which sitting …
Reporting on the recently enacted Twenty-Seventh Constitutional Amendment (May 1, 2026), the article details how Pakistan’s parliament has restructured the judiciary in ways that the International Commission of Jurists has called “a flagrant attack on the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law.” The amendment creates a new Federal Constitutional Court whose members …