This ABA Journal column by Zamira Djabarova of the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights argues that attacks on U.S. courts and judges are now being measured against international human rights standards — the U.N. Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary and on the Role of Lawyers — that the United States …
Israel’s two most senior judicial officials—Supreme Court President Isaac Amit and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara—issued stark warnings on June 1, 2026, accusing the governing coalition of deliberately working to dismantle Israeli democracy through its assault on the judiciary. Speaking at an Israel Bar Association conference, Amit, who has been boycotted by the government since his …
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House Appropriations subcommittee in June 2026 that the Trump administration has scrapped its controversial $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, declaring “we are not moving forward with the fund, period.” The fund—which would have paid people who claimed the federal government was weaponized against them—stemmed from a settlement of Trump’s …
Federal judges have increasingly accused Justice Department lawyers of dishonesty in court, marking a notable erosion of the longstanding “presumption of regularity” that allowed government attorneys to be taken at their word. In a series of pointed rulings in spring 2026, judges in Rhode Island, Chicago, Tennessee, and elsewhere called out department lawyers for withholding …
A New York Times analysis of federal employment data found that more than 10,000 government lawyers—roughly one in five employed at the end of 2024—have left since the start of 2025, a striking loss of legal talent that has left some agencies struggling to carry out President Trump’s agenda. While agencies hired about 3,200 lawyers …
A Turkish appeals court has annulled the 2023 congress of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), removing party leader Özgür Özel and the current administration from office as an interim measure and reinstating former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his team, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. The ruling by the 36th Civil Chamber …
According to The Daily Beast, Brian Morrissey, the Treasury Department’s general counsel and a Trump appointee, resigned shortly after the administration announced a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” intended to compensate individuals who claim they were unfairly targeted by the Biden administration, including people charged in connection with January 6. The article frames Morrissey’s departure as …
On June 2, 2026, the International Mission of Jurists for Guatemala will present its report “Climate of Fear: The Legal Profession and Judicial Independence at Risk” in Madrid, based on a fact-finding mission carried out in October 2025. The mission—a joint initiative of the International Observatory for Lawyers at Risk (OIAD), Lawyers for Lawyers, AJUFIDH, …
In a May 12 speech at Southern Methodist University, reported by the Baltimore Sun on May 13, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson warned that political attacks on judges and the broader judicial system are “really an attack on our society,” and urged Americans to defend judicial independence. Her remarks came as President Trump publicly criticized judges …
On May 14, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral arguments in the consolidated challenges brought by Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, and Susman Godfrey against executive orders that stripped their attorneys of security clearances, barred them from federal buildings, and directed reviews of their clients’ …