{"id":142725,"date":"2026-01-26T17:27:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T01:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/26\/as-judicial-threats-spike-mike-johnson-talks-about-making-an-example-of-them\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T17:27:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T01:27:59","slug":"as-judicial-threats-spike-mike-johnson-talks-about-making-an-example-of-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/01\/26\/as-judicial-threats-spike-mike-johnson-talks-about-making-an-example-of-them\/","title":{"rendered":"As Judicial Threats Spike, Mike Johnson Talks About \u2018Making An Example\u2019 Of Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

The threat environment for federal judges is pretty awful right about now. For federal judges \u2014 ones appointed by\u00a0Democrats and Republicans<\/a>\u00a0alike \u2014 who have presented speed bumps to Donald Trump\u2018s authoritarian takeover, the GOP responded with\u00a0name-calling\u00a0<\/a>and articles of\u00a0impeachment<\/a>. And House Speaker Mike Johnson just poured gasoline on the fire.<\/p>\n

Despite previously putting the pause on impeachment talk around judges<\/a> who rule against the Trump administration, last week Johnson changed his tune<\/a>. When asked about impeachment efforts against judges, he didn\u2019t even pretend this was a bad idea in theory but impractical in reality. He said, plainly, \u201cI\u2019m for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, Johnson offered a little in the way of throat-clearing. Impeachment would be \u201can extreme measure,\u201d he acknowledged, adding \u201cwe\u2019ll see where it goes.\u201d Seems like that whole we-don\u2019t-have-67-votes issue is rearing its head.<\/p>\n

But then he doubled down, suggesting that some judges have strayed \u201cso far outside the bounds of where they\u2019re supposed to operate\u201d that Congress should \u201clay down the law\u201d and \u201cmake an example of some of the egregious abuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

That rhetoric might play well on right-wing cable news, but it\u2019s also profoundly dangerous. There\u2019s a sharp increase in threats against federal judges \u2014\u00a0up 327%<\/a>\u00a0in the Trump II era. Bullying judges<\/a>\u00a0has become a mainstream tactic that Johnson is playing into, floating impeachment casually and often without any plausible allegation of impeachable conduct. That casualness is precisely the problem. When leaders normalize the idea that judges should fear reprisal for doing their jobs, the most unhinged actors hear permission, not caution.<\/p>\n

And that is what\u2019s happening<\/a>. The relevant backdrop against which the Speaker of the House is publicly endorsing impeachment as a response to unfavorable rulings is a spike in death threats, a record numbers of investigations by the U.S. Marshals, increased security, and judges with a genuine fear for themselves and their families.<\/a><\/p>\n

Impeachment is not a tool for correcting legal error. It is not a substitute for appellate review. But we have the Speaker of the House publicly musing about \u201cmaking an example\u201d of judges. Threatening impeachment because you don\u2019t like the outcome is intimidation, and it\u2019s a warped view of accountability to suggest otherwise.<\/p>\n

This is the modern GOP game plan. Sustained pressure. Delegitimization. The steady drumbeat of consequences for disobedience. And powerful politicians arguing that judges who rule the \u201cwrong\u201d way deserve what\u2019s coming.<\/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 As Judicial Threats Spike, Mike Johnson Talks About \u2018Making An Example\u2019 Of Them<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The threat environment for federal judges is pretty awful right about now. For federal judges \u2014 ones appointed by\u00a0Democrats and Republicans<\/a>\u00a0alike \u2014 who have presented speed bumps to Donald Trump\u2018s authoritarian takeover, the GOP responded with\u00a0name-calling\u00a0<\/a>and articles of\u00a0impeachment<\/a>. And House Speaker Mike Johnson just poured gasoline on the fire.<\/p>\n

Despite previously putting the pause on impeachment talk around judges<\/a> who rule against the Trump administration, last week Johnson changed his tune<\/a>. When asked about impeachment efforts against judges, he didn\u2019t even pretend this was a bad idea in theory but impractical in reality. He said, plainly, \u201cI\u2019m for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure, Johnson offered a little in the way of throat-clearing. Impeachment would be \u201can extreme measure,\u201d he acknowledged, adding \u201cwe\u2019ll see where it goes.\u201d Seems like that whole we-don\u2019t-have-67-votes issue is rearing its head.<\/p>\n

But then he doubled down, suggesting that some judges have strayed \u201cso far outside the bounds of where they\u2019re supposed to operate\u201d that Congress should \u201clay down the law\u201d and \u201cmake an example of some of the egregious abuses.\u201d<\/p>\n

That rhetoric might play well on right-wing cable news, but it\u2019s also profoundly dangerous. There\u2019s a sharp increase in threats against federal judges \u2014\u00a0up 327%<\/a>\u00a0in the Trump II era. Bullying judges<\/a>\u00a0has become a mainstream tactic that Johnson is playing into, floating impeachment casually and often without any plausible allegation of impeachable conduct. That casualness is precisely the problem. When leaders normalize the idea that judges should fear reprisal for doing their jobs, the most unhinged actors hear permission, not caution.<\/p>\n

And that is what\u2019s happening<\/a>. The relevant backdrop against which the Speaker of the House is publicly endorsing impeachment as a response to unfavorable rulings is a spike in death threats, a record numbers of investigations by the U.S. Marshals, increased security, and judges with a genuine fear for themselves and their families.<\/a><\/p>\n

Impeachment is not a tool for correcting legal error. It is not a substitute for appellate review. But we have the Speaker of the House publicly musing about \u201cmaking an example\u201d of judges. Threatening impeachment because you don\u2019t like the outcome is intimidation, and it\u2019s a warped view of accountability to suggest otherwise.<\/p>\n

This is the modern GOP game plan. Sustained pressure. Delegitimization. The steady drumbeat of consequences for disobedience. And powerful politicians arguing that judges who rule the \u201cwrong\u201d way deserve what\u2019s coming.<\/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 As Judicial Threats Spike, Mike Johnson Talks About \u2018Making An Example\u2019 Of Them<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The threat environment for federal judges is pretty awful right about now. For federal judges \u2014 ones appointed by\u00a0Democrats and Republicans\u00a0alike \u2014 who have presented speed bumps to Donald Trump\u2018s authoritarian takeover, the GOP responded with\u00a0name-calling\u00a0and articles of\u00a0impeachment. And House Speaker Mike Johnson just poured gasoline on the fire. Despite previously putting the pause on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":142726,"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-142725","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\/2026\/01\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-ILHZY4.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142725","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=142725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}