By Keith Mobley
Judges of any kind at any level have a difficult job. Parties come before them with unresolved conflicts that are of great concern and consequence. A judicial decision is certain to create strong feelings for one side or the other, and sometimes for both sides.
Sore losers have a new model, provided by the president after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against his authority to levy tariffs on foreign nations. The New York City Bar recently issued a statement that included this:
“President Donald Trump’s personal attacks on Justices of the United States Supreme Court in the wake of the Court’s ruling in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump, No. 24-1287, constitute a calculated and dangerous assault on the independence of the judiciary and on our constitutional system of separated powers ...Within hours of the ruling, President Trump attacked individual members of the Court as ‘unpatriotic and disloyal to the Constitution.’ In a partisan personal attack, the president railed against the six Justices who struck down the constitutionality of the tariffs. The president called the ‘Democratic’ justices who ruled against the Administration a ‘disgrace to our nation.’ And he accused the ‘Republican’ justices in the majority of being ‘fools,’ ‘lapdogs,’ and chillingly, ‘an embarrassment to their families.”’
The personal experience of judges today includes death threats, and death. A disgruntled attorney posing as a delivery driver came to the front door of the home of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, shot and killed her 20-year-old son and critically wounded her husband (rutgersfoundation.org).
Our Constitution was designed to provide checks and balances between its three distinct branches: legislative, executive and judicial. The attacks by the executive branch against the judicial branch, and the silence of the legislative branch about those attacks, are together doing great harm to our system of government.
Democracy as we have known it for the past 250 years is being systematically attacked by the president and loyalists he has been able to install in positions of responsibility and authority in the federal government.
Of particular concern are efforts to assume control over elections, contrary to constitutional requirements. Primary authority over elections was deliberately placed at the local level, in state and county governments.
Nearly all polling indicates the president and his Republican Party are at risk of losing control of the House of Representatives, and perhaps the Senate as well. A loss will mean investigations and hearings that will reveal embarrassing actions taken during the second Trump presidency (newsweek.com).
What are Trump and his loyalists doing in preparation for the midterms? Enough to justify real concern. In March of this year, Trump signed an executive order that would upend how Americans register to vote, how we cast our ballots, and how votes are counted. Judicial action has blocked some provisions of that order, but several states have since adopted similar provisions.
Some see his immigration mass deportations as something that could shift to elections policing. Federalizing the National Guard, as he did in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, would allow military patrols of polling places for citizenship checks. He could also direct ICE raids in selected locations ahead of and during the midterms (motherjones.com/politics).
We depend on the judicial branch of government to stop actions that threaten the rule of law and our 250-year-old democracy. Checks and balances between that branch and the executive/legislative branches are not stopping attacks on judges. What can be done?
Volunteer to help all eligible voters recognize the importance of their votes in the November 2026 election. The stakes include the preservation of our democracy and the rule of law.
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Keith Mobley, Dufur, is a retired lawyer who served as the Antelope city attorney against the Rajneeshees until late 1982, when he was hired as assistant to the president of Oregon State University.
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