LETTER: 150+ Former Judges Rebuke Attacks on the Judiciary

WASHINGTON – Today, a bipartisan group of more than 150 former federal and state judges sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi condemning the Trump administration’s attacks on the judiciary, including the circumstances of its recent arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan in her courthouse.

The signatories assert the arrest, and the unnecessary and provocative manner in which it was conducted, is just the latest in a pattern of retaliatory attacks aimed at intimidating the judiciary after a series of rulings by judges appointed by presidents of both parties holding the Trump administration accountable for its repeated violations of the Constitution and laws of the United States.

The group, led by former U.S. Federal Judges Nancy Gertner and J. Michael Luttig, a board member of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute, includes other former federal judges, state supreme court justices as well as superior and circuit court judges from over 25 states, including California, Texas, Alabama, Iowa, Hawaii, Alaska, and many more.

You can read the full letter here.

“The circumstances of Judge Dugan’s arrest make it clear that it was nothing but an effort to threaten and intimidate the state and federal judiciaries into submitting to the administration, instead of interpreting the Constitution and laws of the United States,” the letter reads. “This cynical effort undermines the rule of law and destroys the trust the American people have in the nation’s judges to administer justice in the courtrooms and in the halls of justice across the land.”

“Our independent judiciary is an indispensable element of the rule of law, a cornerstone of American liberty, and an essential component of our system of checks and balances,” said Gregg Nunziata, Executive Director of the Society for the Rule of Law Institute. “Efforts by the administration and its allies to intimidate and delegitimize judges pose a mortal threat to the constitutional order. All American citizens, conservatives and liberals alike, must unite to reject this assault on our common values.”

State Democracy Defenders Fund and the Society for the Rule of Law Institute stand firmly with these former judges in unequivocally rejecting the attorney general’s and the Trump administration’s assault on the judiciary, the rule of law, and those who administer it.

For press inquiries, please contact [email protected].

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State Democracy Defenders Fund brings together a nonpartisan team to work with national, state and local allies across the country to defend in real-time the foundations of our democracy.

The Society for the Rule of Law Institute is a national organization dedicated to the defense of the rule of law, the Constitution, and American democracy from a traditionally conservative point of view.