Be thankful for brave judges

EVEN AS A KID, when my craving for gifts was at its peak, I still preferred Thanksgiving to Christmas. It was the relaxed, unornamented holiday, when the family's focus was simply on good food and each other (and football). As the name says, it's about giving thanks, not things.

- JACKIE CALMES COLUMNIST

CAROLYN VAN HOUTEN Washington Post / Getty Images DISTRICT JUDGE James Boasberg has taken steps toward finding administration lawyers to be in contempt of court.

What a blessing to have a day devoted, as a nation, to thinking about who and what to be grateful for. And thanks for that to Abraham Lincoln, a president whose legacy was holding the nation together, not driving it apart.

Though family and friends as usual are top of mind, this year I'm thankful as well to some strangers: the many federal judges in district and appeals courts, including appointees of President Trump, who've withstood threats of impeachment and even death threats to try to hold the wannabe king and his toadying turkeys to account (with little support to date from the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court).

Judges of all stripes have blocked the administration's mass firings of public servants, slashing of federal funds provided by law, violations of individuals' civil rights and private data, extrajudicial deportations to foreign prisons and so many more abuses of power.

This Thanksgiving week opened with a dramatic reminder of the founders' wisdom in creating an independent judiciaryfor which we should be especially thankful given that their other supposed check on an imperial president, Congress, is shirking its constitutional duty these days.

On Monday, District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie threw out the Justice Department's Trumped-up cases against two nemeses of the president: James Comey, the Republican former FBI director who defied first-term Trump's unethical asks and was fired for it, and New York Atty.