News
This section features curated news articles on the role of lawyers and judges in democratic decline in the U.S. and globally. It highlights how legal professionals are implicated in, impacted by, or push back against authoritarianism and democratic backsliding.
Each post includes a brief summary or commentary that connects current events to broader scholarly debates on the legal profession and the defense of democratic norms.
News Regarding Lawyers
Lawyers Against Democratic Decline
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Trump’s Own Handpicked Lawyer Quits Treasury in Disgust at Massive $1.8B Grift
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…
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“Attack on our society”: Supreme Court Justice Jackson defends judiciary
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…
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Law firms urge appeals court to keep blocking Trump’s sanctions against them
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…
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Director Of Prestigious Skadden Fellows Program Resigns Over Firm’s Pro Bono Payola Deal With Trump
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…
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Former federal prosecutors see legal flaws in DOJ’s indictment of Southern Poverty Law Center
In an April 23, 2026 analysis, CBS News reports that multiple former federal prosecutors have identified serious legal weaknesses in the SPLC indictment that they say could lead to dismissal of some…
Attacks Against Legal Profession
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Appeals court questions Trump executive orders targeting law firms
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…
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Justice Department sues DC’s attorney disciplinary authorities for recommending a Trump ally be disbarred
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…
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Why Lawyers Are Under Attack Around the World
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…
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Turkish court grants conditional release to 15 defendants in Erdoğan rival’s trial
On April 30, 2026, an Istanbul court granted conditional release to 15 of the more than 400 defendants prosecuted alongside jailed Istanbul mayor and CHP opposition figure Ekrem İmamoğlu, who has now…
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Turkey seeks prison sentence for former Erdoğan legal adviser, penal code author
On April 28, 2026, Turkish Minute reported that the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office is seeking up to two years in prison for prominent legal scholar and penal code author İzzet Özgenç…
Lawyers Facilitating Democratic Decline
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Trump judicial nominees for Texas sidestep questions on 2020 election, Jan. 6 Capitol attack
Four of President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees, including two for the Southern District of Texas, declined under oath to answer whether Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election or whether the U.S.…
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DOJ wants to shield its lawyers from outside scrutiny. Critics worry about oversight
NPR reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has advanced a proposed rule that would let the Attorney General intervene in — and potentially delay or block — state bar investigations into…
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Justice Department Repeatedly Making Unforced Errors Under Trump
The Washington Times reported on April 12 that senior DOJ officials themselves attribute the department’s growing courtroom difficulties to three compounding factors: the sheer volume of litigation (particularly immigration cases), an unprecedented…
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Iran’s Revolutionary Courts Deploy “Maximum Elimination” Strategy Against Dissidents on Eve of New Year
On March 24, 2026 — the eve of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year — human rights organizations documented a new phase in Iran’s systematic use of judicial institutions to suppress political dissent,…
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Hungary Refuses to Enforce ICC Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu, Parliament Ratifies ICC Withdrawal
As of March 20, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government was poised to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for alleged crimes against…
News Regarding Judges
Targets and Resistance
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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Administration fires 2 immigration judges who ruled against deporting Palestinian rights advocates
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…
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Under Trump, DOJ Makes Errors in Court, Testing Judges’ Patience
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.…
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Sitting Federal Judges Break Their Silence on Attacks Against the Judiciary at Speak Up for Justice Forum
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…
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Chief Justice John Roberts warns personal attacks on judges have ‘got to stop’
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…
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MEDEL Conference in Rome: European Judges and Prosecutors Testify to Global Attack on Rule of Law
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…
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Appointment of top federal prosecutors in New Jersey was unconstitutional, judge rules
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…
