Trump attacks rule of law. I met the judges standing up for it. | Opinion

SEATTLE — You may not have heard it yet, but America’s legal community recently let out a roar here in the Emerald City, a collective call from retired federal judges and a bipartisan array of academics and legal organizations: The rule of law matters, and it will be protected.

The two-day symposium, “Neither Sword Nor Purse,” held at the University of Washington School of Law, was necessary because of one person: President Donald J. Trump. His threats against the judiciary and the ease with which he and his administration ignore or boastfully refuse to follow the law are without precedent. He is, quite simply, a threat to judicial independence, and he shows no hesitation to jackhammer the very foundation of our democracy.

J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge and an icon in the conservative legal world, spoke first and pulled no punches, tracing Trump’s disrespect for the law back to the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol:

“On Jan. 6, 2021, it was a dark day in American history. On that day, the 45th president of the United States instigated a war on America's democracy, and forced upon this nation an unpeaceful transfer of power for the first time in almost 250 years. From that day until this day, he has persisted in the prosecution of that war, determined to prosecute that war to its catastrophic end, to this day presenting himself to America and to the world as a clear and present danger to American democracy.”

Trump is waging war on the rule of law

Luttig continued: “Four years later, on his first day back in the White House, the same man, now the 47th president of the United States and a wannabe king, declared war on the Constitution, the rule of law and the nation’s federal judiciary.”

According to the U.S. Marshals Service, there were 564 threats against federal judges in 2025 and there have been 275 already this year. The Marshals Service asked Congress for an additional $34 million in April, noting that “the threat environment” is “unlikely to decrease in the foreseeable future.”

Trump has fueled this fire, calling a district court judge who ruled against him “a Radical Left Lunatic Judge,” posting on social media about “USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK, AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY,” and calling certain members of the U.S. Supreme Court “fools and lapdogs for the RINOs and the radical left Democrats.”

It’s despicable behavior for a president, or anyone, but it has become routine for Trump in his second term.

Trump's assault on the rule of law leaves us wondering who will help

The basic idea of the rule of law is that people, institutions and entities are held accountable to laws that are: publicly promulgated; equally enforced; independently adjudicated; and consistent with international human rights principles. When a president starts eroding that by not following court orders or denouncing any form of justice that doesn’t align with his desires, all of us are at risk of not being treated fairly under the law.

Like many regular voters, I watch this kind of anti-democratic, unhinged behavior and worry about the country, wondering if there are any powerful people working behind the scenes to keep democracy intact.

What I saw in Seattle gave me hope. (I spoke at the symposium, which included other journalists along with educators and academics. Organizers covered my travel expenses, but I was not paid to be there.)

'We can follow the law'

Robert Harlan Henry, a former federal judge and the University of Washington Law School's Jurist-in-Residence for the Rule of Law, told a powerful story about a hate crime that happened in his native Oklahoma and the multifaith gathering held in its wake. One of the speakers at that gathering said, “We’ve got to learn to love each other.” And, as Henry recounted, another later said: “That is a great idea that will never work. I would be satisfied if we would follow the law.”

“The law. The law, we can follow the law,” Henry said, passionately. “We can make everyone susceptible to the rule of law, the government primarily. Just like the government should be the model employer, the government should be the model follower of the rule of law. And somewhere along this way, I think we’re going to find that an independent judiciary is going to be essential to have this rule of law.”

Seattle symposium showed retired judges are prepared to fight

In attendance at this symposium were federal judges, both active and retired, who were appointed by presidents, both liberal and conservative. There were representatives from the American College of Trial Lawyers, the Society for the Rule of Law and the Task Force for American Democracy, to name a few. Former Solicitor General Seth Waxman spoke, alongside law school deans and practicing attorneys and judicial educators.

In total, two messages were delivered. First, the legal community at large recognizes the threats against the judiciary and is prepared to support sitting judges and fight to protect them.

A call for courage, and a knock on those who've bent the knee to Trump

The second message was pointedly highlighted by Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

“There's a tremendous need for courage right now. We've seen some of that over the last 15 months. I so admire the federal district court judges who have shown great courage in the rulings, even if faced with the death threats, the threats to their families that we've heard about,” Chemerinsky said. “On the other hand, we have also seen, at times, a stunning lack of courage.”

The dean continued: “We all learned on the playground that if we give in to bullies, it only makes it worse, and that's what those who capitulated have done.”

Hope is hard to come by these days, but it is out there

In a time when it’s easy to feel like all hope is lost, what I saw and heard in Seattle was a welcome roar from some of the country’s sharpest and most well-connected legal minds. If you feel worried about the rule of law in this country, a perfectly reasonable way to feel, know there is a growing force hellbent on protecting it.

My hope now is that the roar I heard, the calls for courage and the vows to protect foundational principles we all hold dear, echo out from the Northwest and across the country like a roll of thunder.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.