Donald Trump is under the delusional belief about his control over the justice department but judges are speaking out

Echo opinion published in the Boston Globe by Kimberly Atkins Stohr: The Supreme Court has not practiced or ruled in an impartial way❗⚖️

A federal judge resigned to speak out against Trump. Here’s what he told me.“It is vital that the American people understand that democracy is very valuable,” former US District Court Judge Mark Wolf said.

Over the past year, I’ve had private conversations with quite a few federal trial and appellate level judges about the recent erosion of the rule of law and vicious attacks on courts — attacks that are coming in large measure from inside Donald Trump’s White House.

Those discussions have been private for a reason: As judges, they are tasked with ruling on the issues that come before them impartially, without fear or favor. That’s why talking on the record or even on background to the press is a no-no. Even expressing concern about the weakening of our democracy can give the false appearance of bias, and as a result threaten Americans’ trust in the judiciary. So that’s something they are loath to do.

Still, I have been imploring judges to let me share their concerns and how Trump’s attacks have affected them. Staying mum, even with good reason, comes with the unfortunate consequence of making judges seem opaque, secretive, and out of touch — or worse: duplicitous. It’s important for me to explain that these judges, with a few exceptions, are not politicians in robes but real people doing the best that they can in dire circumstances to uphold our Constitution. But the judges, putting their duty above all, have remained silent.

Until now.

“The Declaration of Independence, but particularly the Constitution, establish that all power is in the people, and some of that power is given to elected officials,” former US District Court Judge Mark Wolf, who recently resigned in order to speak publicly about the damage Trump and his administration are causing, told me. “Courts are constituted to hold the elected officials to the limits of the power delegated to them.”

That simple explanation cuts to the heart of how our representative democracy is supposed to work: It is a government of the people. 

American people lend some of that power to lawmakers when they elect them. Lawmakers lend some of that borrowed power to the president and the rest of the executive branch, with limitations imposed by the law and the Constitution. And the courts are there to decide when the president’s actions exceed that power.

But that power never belongs to lawmakers or the president. It always stays with the people.

That is why Wolf’s resignation, and the essay he wrote in The Atlantic announcing it, are so extraordinary. His concern about how Donald Trump is twisting the country’s rule of law in order to take power from the people and keep it for himself — by flouting the law, defying court orders, turning the Department of Justice into his own vehicle for personal vengeance, and more — was greater than his desire to keep his lifetime tenure on the bench.

“I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom,” Wolf, who was appointed to the bench by president Ronald Reagan, wrote in The Atlantic. “Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment.” After a career as a federal prosecutor and judge, Wolf wrote, “The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out.”

And among the biggest problems, he told me, is the Supreme Court’s majority, which has repeatedly used its emergency shadow docket to override the judgment of federal trial and appellate judges to give Trump victory after victory — before the legality and constitutionality of his actions are even determined. Judges are meant to be umpires, not players on a team. Lower court federal judges get this, and even those appointed by Trump have been willing to rule against him when he abuses the people’s power (drawing his ire as a result). But the Supreme Court’s majority seems to keep putting its thumb on Trump’s side of the scale.

“The hallmark of an impartial judge is that the same party doesn’t always win because the facts of each case are unique and the relevant law often differs,” Wolf told me. The fact that Trump keeps winning at the Supreme Court “suggests a concerning, possible lack of impartiality.”

Which brings us back to the people. Wolf told me that one of his lodestars (used to guide his course) is an address Judge Learned Hand gave at a naturalization ceremony in 1944, in New York’s Central Park. Hand told the new citizens: “I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it.”

Wolf echoed Hand’s sentiment.

“I don’t know where the American people are now,”’ Wolf said. “It is vital that the American people understand that democracy is very valuable — it gives meaning to the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as an inalienable right — and that one important role of the courts is to hold elected officials to the limits of the power the people gave them. If the American people do not insist that public officials obey court orders, I think that American democracy is doomed.”

Kimberly Atkins Stohr is a columnist for the Globe. She may be reached at kimberly.atkinsstohr@globe.com. Follow her @KimberlyEAtkins.