Our Federal Judges Offer Our Only Present Guard Rails Against Trump‘s Immunity

By Donald A. Collins | 10 February 2025
Church and State

(Credit: YouTube / screengrab)

Our Constitutional crisis worsens from the daily decisions Trump and his co-president Elon Musk are making about our federal government.

There seems to be little that the out of power Democratic Party can do except respond verbally.

However, one could be encouraged by a February 7 Washington Post article entitled “GOP-appointed judge’s extraordinary Trump warning is hardly the only one.”

Here I quote substantially from that article.

Start here:

And, increasingly, we’re seeing even Republican-nominated judges issue rather stark warnings, often invoking the danger Trump’s actions could portend for the country.

U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour on Thursday shot up the most recent — and, arguably, the most striking — flare.

In halting Trump’s attempt to nix birthright citizenship — a long-established right under the 14th Amendment — Coughenour accused the president of trampling on the Constitution for “political or personal gain.”

“It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals,” said Coughenour, who was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan. “The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain.”

Coughenour had also earlier indicated that he views this as a historic moment. In labeling Trump’s order “blatantly unconstitutional” two weeks ago, the judge compared the situation to instances when the legal systems in other countries buckled.

“There are other times in world history where we look back and people of goodwill can say, ‘Where were the judges? Where were the lawyers?’” he said, according to KUOW.

Coughenour is hardly the first GOP-nominated judge to bark up this tree.

Here I quote the names of the other Judges who express similar opinions.

1. U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, a George W. Bush appointee, called Trump — in a 2022 case relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — a “charlatan” who “doesn’t in my view really care about democracy, but only about power.” He added that, because of Trump, “I think our democracy is in trouble.” Walton then last year rebuked Trump’s attacks on the judges involved in his court cases, saying that “if we don’t have a viable court system that’s able to function efficiently, then we have tyranny.”

2. U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, last year excoriated attempts to rewrite Jan. 6. He said he had never seen a time “when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream.” He warned that this “misguided rhetoric could presage further danger to our country.” (While Lamberth didn’t cite Trump by name, he alluded to “martyrizing convicted Jan. 6 defendants as ‘political prisoners’ or even, incredibly, ‘hostages’” — all of which points to Trump’s own commentary and efforts.)

3. U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan, a Reagan appointee, told Georgetown Law School students last year that Trump and his allies’ Jan. 6 revisionism was “a danger that is embedded now in our communities across the country.” He added: “And we have to wonder where this is going to end up if that’s part of our history, this fraudulent story.”

I will stop here but other judges add their concerns such as Supreme Court Chief Justice who said “In his 2024 year-end report, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. decried how politicians were treating the courts.

He said public officials “regrettably have engaged in recent attempts to intimidate judges — for example, suggesting political bias in the judge’s adverse rulings without a credible basis for such allegations.” He said such things “may prompt dangerous reactions by others.”

Roberts also decried how politicians had “raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings.”

Trump’s Vice President JD Vance said in this same article “in 2021 said he would urge Trump in a second term to fire civil servants en masse. He added that “when the courts stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say: ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”

There is much more I have not quoted, but this one is major:

In halting Trump’s attempt to nix birthright citizenship — a long-established right under the 14th Amendment — Coughenour accused the president of trampling on the Constitution for “political or personal gain.”

“It has become ever more apparent that, to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals,” said Coughenour, who was nominated to the bench by President Ronald Reagan. “The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain.

I conclude with another quote from Coughenour: “There are other times in world history where we look back and people of goodwill can say, ‘Where were the judges? Where were the lawyers?”

All the judges quoted above were appointed by Republican Presidents.

You need to read this article in full here.

Fear mongering and intimidation has certainly worked with the GOP Congress, but perhaps the courage of our judicial system can encourage their lack of backbone. So far ceding the power of the purse to Trump seems to be sufficient excuse for their pitiful defection.

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”, “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”, “On the Precipice of Political Disaster in 2024”, “Democracy at Red State Risk”, “Does Trump Go to Jail or to The Oval Office?” and “Trump: Pardon or Punish?: The Nixon Precedence Was Not A Trump Coup Denied!”.

Fate of USAID in question as judge sets back Trump’s efforts to dismantle agency

Judge orders immediate restoration of federal funding after Trump’s freeze

Judge says he will block Trump’s ‘blatantly unconstitutional’ immigration executive order

‘Do not forget’: Bernie Sanders has a message if you’re worried about Trump 2.0

Be sure to ‘like’ us on Facebook

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here