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 …
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 …
On April 29, 2026, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico publicly confirmed that he has filed a criminal complaint against Judge Pamela Zaleska of the Specialized Criminal Court over her handling of the conviction of former special prosecutor Dušan Kováčik. The Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic publicly objected to the Prime Minister’s stated justification for …
A CBS News Sunday Morning report by Ted Koppel examines the Trump administration’s restructuring of the U.S. immigration court system, which falls under the Department of Justice rather than the judicial branch. Over the past 14 months, more than 200 immigration judges have been fired, retired, or forced out, and former judges interviewed—including Ryan Wood, …
The Trump administration fired two immigration judges this past weekend who had earlier dismissed deportation cases against two pro-Palestinian student activists. Judge Roopal Patel had ruled there were no grounds to deport Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was held in detention for 45 days, while Judge Nina Froes dismissed proceedings against Columbia University …
A Bloomberg Law report from April 10, 2026 highlights a troubling pattern of errors and inaccuracies by U.S. Justice Department lawyers in federal courts, raising concerns among judges about the DOJ’s credibility. In March alone, DOJ attorneys disclosed relying on incorrect information in an immigration case in Manhattan, made inaccurate statements in a Rhode Island …
On March 19, sitting federal judges convened an extraordinary public forum organized by the group Speak Up for Justice, during which they read aloud profane and violent threats they had personally received — including voicemails threatening to “put a bullet in your head” — as part of a coordinated effort to document and condemn the …
In an unusually direct public intervention on March 17, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. declared that personal criticism of federal judges is “dangerous” and “has got to stop,” in remarks widely interpreted as directed at the Trump administration and its congressional allies. Roberts’ statement came as federal judges across the country faced a documented surge …
On March 14, 2026, MEDEL (Magistrats Européens pour la Démocratie et les Libertés), an association of European magistrates, convened a conference in Rome titled “Europe in the context of the global attack on the Rule of Law and international law,” gathering testimony from lawyers, judges, and prosecutors across Europe and the United States about the …
A federal judge issued a 130-page ruling on March 9 disqualifying three Justice Department officials whom Attorney General Pam Bondi had installed to jointly oversee the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey — finding that the arrangement was implemented unlawfully. The case began when Trump’s original nominee, his former personal attorney Alina Habba, was barred …