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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Pakistan: End the cycle of detention and judicial harassment of lawyers Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha
Fifteen organizations, including the International Commission of Jurists, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, the Law Society of England and Wales and the New York City Bar Association, have…
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Prosecutor Sheri Mecklenburg resigns from DOJ in fiery letter, saying Boutros “personally directed” Broadview Six prosecution
Sheri Mecklenburg, the lead grand jury prosecutor in the federal case against six protesters arrested outside the Broadview ICE facility near Chicago, has retired from the Justice Department under protest. The case…
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Opposition rallies against the government’s proposed judicial reform
Hundreds of opposition lawmakers and activists gathered at Colombo’s main railway station on Thursday September 3 to demand the withdrawal of a proposed constitutional amendment that would raise the retirement age of…
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Turkish lawyers allege torture, harsh confinement of detainees jailed before NATO summit
The Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) announced on August 21 that it will file criminal complaints against prison administrators and guards after its members documented evidence of physical abuse during visits to detainees…
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128 retired jurists file ethics complaint over DHS lawyer’s ‘attacks’ via social media on 4 sitting judges
On August 20, 128 retired federal and state judges, joined by the Democracy Defenders Fund and Lawyers Defending American Democracy, filed a Florida Bar complaint against Department of Homeland Security General Counsel…
Attacks Against Legal Profession
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Karua sues Uganda over deportation, seeks return to defend Besigye
Kenyan Senior Counsel Martha Karua, a former justice minister of Kenya, has sued the government of Uganda over her deportation and the decision to declare her persona non grata. She is suing…
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Tunisia: Politicized and persecutory: the trial of lawyer Ahmed Souab in Case 12/9749
A legal briefing published on September 30 examines the prosecution of Ahmed Souab, a lawyer and former administrative judge who, after the final hearing in the “Conspiracy Case” in April 2025, publicly…
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Lawyers under pressure in Iran: the right to a defense at risk
On September 25 the convictions of eight lawyers from Gilan province in a joint case before the Revolutionary Court in Rasht were reported, on charges of “propaganda against the system” and insulting…
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Blanche said the ‘weaponization fund’ was dead. Now the Justice Department is appealing
Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter filed notice on September 11 that the Justice Department will appeal to the Eleventh Circuit from Judge Kathleen Williams’s July order dismissing the President’s and…
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Türkiye: lawyers arrested in connection with LGBTQ protests
Between September 12 and 14, coordinated police raids across five Turkish cities targeted organisations defending LGBT rights, part of an operation the justice minister said involved 162 people under investigation; Human Rights…
Lawyers Facilitating Democratic Decline
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A crisis is shaking Brazil’s Supreme Court. Here’s what to know
The Associated Press sets out how the collapse of Banco Master, a mid-sized bank shut down last November after a fraud investigation, has reached the Brazilian Supreme Court three weeks before a presidential…
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Attorney General Blanche’s appearances at political events blur Justice Department boundaries
Attorney General Todd Blanche spoke on September 16 at an event for Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley in North Carolina, a week after addressing the Republican midterm convention in Dallas, and held…
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Raskin Targets Jeanine Pirro and Other Prosecutors in Misconduct Probe
On August 26, Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent letters to the top federal prosecutors in five districts — the District of Columbia, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode…
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Justice Department Argues It’s OK if It’s Under Trump Control
In an August 18 filing in the Eastern District of North Carolina opposing James Comey’s vindictive-prosecution motion, federal prosecutors argued that presidential direction of subordinates exercising executive functions is “a feature, not…
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Attorney General Todd Blanche won’t commit to a DOJ free from White House influence
In this NPR All Things Considered segment, host Sacha Pfeiffer interviews ProPublica reporter Aaron Davis about newly confirmed Attorney General Todd Blanche’s appearance on Meet the Press, where Blanche declined to pledge…
News Regarding Judges
Targets and Resistance
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High Court urges Balad chairman to drop out of elections or face disqualification
On October 1 Supreme Court President Isaac Amit told Balad chairman Sami Abu Shehadeh that a majority of a nine-justice panel would uphold the Central Elections Committee’s decision to bar him from…
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Judge overturns Trump’s decision to fire court-appointed US attorney in Seattle
On October 1 U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian ruled that the President had unlawfully fired Roger Rogoff, a former judge and veteran prosecutor whom the 17 active and senior judges of the…
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A crisis is shaking Brazil’s Supreme Court. Here’s what to know
The Associated Press sets out how the collapse of Banco Master, a mid-sized bank shut down last November after a fraud investigation, has reached the Brazilian Supreme Court three weeks before a presidential…
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Supreme Court president warns that verbal attacks pave the way to physical violence
Addressing a special Israel Bar Association conference in Tel Aviv on September 2, Supreme Court President Isaac Amit argued that the road to physical violence against judges and lawyers runs first through verbal…
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Supreme Court lifts 1 of 2 injunctions on Trump’s mail-voting executive order for 2026 elections
Votebeat’s August 24 report details the mechanics of the Supreme Court’s order lifting a stay on Trump’s executive order directing the U.S. Postal Service to restrict mail ballot handling for the 2026…
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Jackson slams Supreme Court majority for injecting ‘chaos’ into midterms as voting advocates blast mail ballot ruling
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson publicly accused the Supreme Court’s conservative majority of injecting “chaos and uncertainty” into the 2026 midterm elections after the Court, on its emergency docket, lifted one of two…
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Judge notices Trump admin ‘creating’ a mail-in ballot ’emergency’ after ‘courts were closed,’ demands immediate answers
Justice Department lawyers filed notice on a Friday evening, “after the courts were closed,” that the U.S. Postal Service had transmitted a final rule to the Federal Register for August 26 publication…
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Judge María Lourdes Afiuni, Once Chávez’s “Personal Prisoner,” Fully Freed After 16 Years
Former Venezuelan judge María Lourdes Afiuni has been granted full freedom, closing a case that ran more than 16 years and became emblematic of the collapse of judicial independence in Venezuela. The…
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‘How to Kill a Federal Judge’ author convicted of threatening US judges
A Minnesota man was convicted by a federal jury in St. Paul on August 7, 2026, on all three counts related to writing and distributing a lengthy manuscript threatening federal judges, Reuters…
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This federal judge ruled against Trump. Then the threats began.
In an August 5 profile, The Washington Post reported on Chief U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. of Rhode Island, who spoke publicly about credible death threats and harassment he and…
