How to protect our judges

American Voices

- Robert Reich American Voices Tribune Content Agency

One of our highest priorities in this darkness must be to protect the people who are doing the most right now to push back against Trump's tyranny: our judiciary.

In some 180 judicial rulings so far, federal judges have at least temporarily stopped Trump from (1) deporting and/or imprisoning people without due process, (2) firing federal workers and closing agencies and departments without congressional approval, (3) forcing law firms to not represent people or causes Trump dislikes, (4) forcing universities, their faculties, and their students not to say or write things Trump dislikes, and (5) imposing worldwide tariffs without congressional authority.

Most of these court rulings have been temporary until the merits of the cases are fully heard, but increasingly, they're final decisions.

The Trump regime is appealing to many of them. A few will almost certainly end up in the Supreme Court.

Our laws and the Constitution allow a president to contest such rulings in these ways.

But Trump and his lackeys are also using a second tactic: trying to undermine public confidence in the judiciary — even inviting threats to the safety of judges and seeking to intimidate them.

Last week, Trump on social media rebuked what he called "USA-HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK."

On Thursday, Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, wrote on social media that the decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. trade court striking down Trump's tariffs as exceeding his authority was a "judicial coup."

Miller added: "We are living under a judicial tyranny."

Miller then reposted photos of the three trade court judges. (Two of the judges, incidentally, were Republican appointees, one named to the bench by Trump.)