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 …
On July 13, 2026, the New York City Bar Association urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Todd Blanche’s nomination as U.S. Attorney General, ahead of his confirmation hearing scheduled for July 15. The letter, signed by City Bar President Matthew Diller and Rule of Law Task Force Chair Susan J. Kohlmann, argues that Blanche’s …
In a July 8, 2026 PBS NewsHour interview with Ali Rogin, Judge Holly D’Andrea — a Texas immigration judge since 2019 and president of the National Association of Immigration Judges — described low morale on the bench as roughly 200 judges have been fired, resigned, or retired, shifting an estimated 700 cases each onto remaining …
In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 91-year-old precedent (Humphrey’s Executor) that had barred presidents from firing members of independent federal agencies without cause. The ruling upheld President Trump’s 2025 dismissal of Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, effectively turning FTC commissioners into at-will employees who serve at the president’s discretion. Writing …
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 …
A New York Times opinion essay by Julia Angwin and Ami Fields-Meyer argues that grassroots opposition to the Trump administration is more robust than many Americans assume. Drawing on a year of interviews with activists and dissidents worldwide, the authors contend that effective resistance to authoritarian leaders rarely hinges on a single march or election. …
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 …
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 …
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 …