University of Wisconsin–Madison

Category: Judges: Targets and Resistance

Judges tour the Midwest to offer unusual warning about attacks on courts

In a July 10 report, The Washington Post described a bus tour of retired federal and state judges, dubbed “Justice in Motion,” traveling from suburban Pittsburgh through Ohio to outside Detroit to warn the public that judicial independence and the rule of law are in grave danger as the nation marks its 250th anniversary. The …

UN experts urge reversal of disciplinary actions against judges applying international human rights law: Peru

UN human rights experts have called on Peru to halt disciplinary proceedings against judges who applied international human rights law in cases involving serious abuses. In a statement issued from Geneva on June 26, 2026, the experts warned that punishing judges for upholding international law undermines judicial independence and sets back victims’ access to justice. …

World court judges sue Trump administration over sanctions

Three International Criminal Court judges — Kimberly Prost (Canada), Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda), and Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou (Benin) — filed a lawsuit in a Manhattan federal court on June 24, 2026, challenging sanctions the Trump administration imposed on them last year. The judges argue the sanctions were unlawful, exceeding the scope of the International …

On Judicial Rascality: When Judges Defy the Court Above Them and Lawyers Who Enable Them

In this opinion piece for THISDAY, Dr Eyimofe Atake, SAN, condemns what Nigeria’s Court of Appeal recently labeled “judicial rascality”—the practice of lower-court judges deliberately ignoring orders from higher courts. The article centers on a case in which the Court of Appeal stayed proceedings over the deregistration of five political parties, yet a Federal High …

Federal judges who’ve ruled against Trump administration denounce threats against themselves, their families

In the United States, a CBS News “60 Minutes” investigation (broadcast June 7, 2026, at the edge of this reporting window) reported that federal judges who have ruled against the Trump administration are facing escalating intimidation, including death threats, “swatting,” bomb threats, and doxxing directed at them and their families. The program spoke with 26 …

Turkish court suspends CHP leadership, reinstates former chairman Kılıçdaroğlu

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 …

Judge shot dead in Ecuador while heading to gym without her bodyguards

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 …

Trump flouts lower court rulings in unprecedented display of executive power, and ‘respect for the rule of law is likely to break down’

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 …

Slovakia: PM Fico Files Criminal Complaint Against Judge Pamela Zaleska

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 …

Former judges speak out on Trump admin’s immigration court purges

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, …