{"id":128900,"date":"2025-07-30T15:17:42","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T23:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/07\/30\/why-would-trump-stop-bullying-judges-when-its-so-effective\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T15:17:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T23:17:42","slug":"why-would-trump-stop-bullying-judges-when-its-so-effective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/07\/30\/why-would-trump-stop-bullying-judges-when-its-so-effective\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Would Trump Stop Bullying Judges When It\u2019s So Effective?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between May 2024 and March 2025, threats against judges increased a staggering 327%, according to data from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That stark stat isn\u2019t terribly surprising \u2014 upsetting, sure. But if you\u2019ve been paying attention at all over the past few months, it\u2019s not shocking. See, every time the Trump administration suffers a setback in court, they take to social media or cable news to blame the judge. And the MAGA faithful have taken the bait<\/a>, amping up the threats<\/a> aimed at the judiciary. For example, two judges received extra security details after\u00a0their rulings<\/a> put\u00a0a pause<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0DOGE takeover<\/a>\u00a0and resulted in right-wing backlash. And the administration\u2019s response to the judicial threats has been absolutely unhinged<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Gabe Roth of Fix the Court sees the MAGA response to losing in court as fanning the flames against judges, \u201cSome 300 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration this year, and when the administration loses any one of them, there\u2019s a good chance the president, other administration officials or a roving band of online goons will attack the judge\u2014either verbally or worse, as we know several judges have had pizzas delivered to their homes as a way of threatening them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the problem is getting worse \u2014 just this week, the Trump administration took (another) shot at Judge James Boasberg, filing a misconduct complaint against the jurist who dared to try to slow down <\/a>the administration\u2019s ability to sell people to El Salvadorian slave prisons.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Today at my direction, @TheJusticeDept<\/a> filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg for making improper public comments about President Trump and his Administration.<\/p>\n

These comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) July 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik told ABA Journal <\/a>after watching colleagues on the bench receive death threats, he\u2019s hesitant to rule against the Trump Administration \u2014 which is quite literally letting the terrorists win. Lasnik continued, \u201cI wish the president and the people around him would moderate the rhetoric about judges being awful, that they should be impeached.\u201d He said, \u201cIt feeds to the atmosphere that federal judges are the enemy.\u201d But *your* hesitance to rule against them is precisely why MAGA is bullying judges \u2014 when the Constitution doesn\u2019t support your aggressive right-wing agenda, well, then strongman tactics are on the agenda.<\/p>\n

From the Supreme Court <\/a>on down, Trump\u2019s legal arguments have depended more on vibes than jurisprudence, as he positions the executive over the other two supposedly co-equal branches of government. Wannabe authoritarians don\u2019t stop just because you wish it so; indeed, they only get more emboldened when judges self-sensor and weaken the institutions designed to provide checks and balances.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Why Would Trump Stop Bullying Judges When It\u2019s So Effective?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Between May 2024 and March 2025, threats against judges increased a staggering 327%, according to data from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That stark stat isn\u2019t terribly surprising \u2014 upsetting, sure. But if you\u2019ve been paying attention at all over the past few months, it\u2019s not shocking. See, every time the Trump administration suffers a setback in court, they take to social media or cable news to blame the judge. And the MAGA faithful have taken the bait<\/a>, amping up the threats<\/a> aimed at the judiciary. For example, two judges received extra security details after\u00a0their rulings<\/a> put\u00a0a pause<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0DOGE takeover<\/a>\u00a0and resulted in right-wing backlash. And the administration\u2019s response to the judicial threats has been absolutely unhinged<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Gabe Roth of Fix the Court sees the MAGA response to losing in court as fanning the flames against judges, \u201cSome 300 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump administration this year, and when the administration loses any one of them, there\u2019s a good chance the president, other administration officials or a roving band of online goons will attack the judge\u2014either verbally or worse, as we know several judges have had pizzas delivered to their homes as a way of threatening them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the problem is getting worse \u2014 just this week, the Trump administration took (another) shot at Judge James Boasberg, filing a misconduct complaint against the jurist who dared to try to slow down <\/a>the administration\u2019s ability to sell people to El Salvadorian slave prisons.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Today at my direction, @TheJusticeDept<\/a> filed a misconduct complaint against U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg for making improper public comments about President Trump and his Administration.<\/p>\n

These comments have undermined the integrity of the judiciary, and we will\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2014 Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) July 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik told ABA Journal <\/a>after watching colleagues on the bench receive death threats, he\u2019s hesitant to rule against the Trump Administration \u2014 which is quite literally letting the terrorists win. Lasnik continued, \u201cI wish the president and the people around him would moderate the rhetoric about judges being awful, that they should be impeached.\u201d He said, \u201cIt feeds to the atmosphere that federal judges are the enemy.\u201d But *your* hesitance to rule against them is precisely why MAGA is bullying judges \u2014 when the Constitution doesn\u2019t support your aggressive right-wing agenda, well, then strongman tactics are on the agenda.<\/p>\n

From the Supreme Court <\/a>on down, Trump\u2019s legal arguments have depended more on vibes than jurisprudence, as he positions the executive over the other two supposedly co-equal branches of government. Wannabe authoritarians don\u2019t stop just because you wish it so; indeed, they only get more emboldened when judges self-sensor and weaken the institutions designed to provide checks and balances.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Why Would Trump Stop Bullying Judges When It\u2019s So Effective?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Between May 2024 and March 2025, threats against judges increased a staggering 327%, according to data from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. That stark stat isn\u2019t terribly surprising \u2014 upsetting, sure. But if you\u2019ve been paying attention at all over the past few months, it\u2019s not shocking. See, every time the Trump administration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":128901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-Q1VzZy.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}