On July 21, the Washington Post ran a piece headlined, “Trump officials accused of defying 1 in 3 judges who ruled against him.” A comprehensive analysis of hundreds of lawsuits filed against the administration’s new policies revealed “dozens of examples of defiance, delay and dishonesty,” by the government in handling the cases. Plaintiffs in more than a third of the cases that had progressed far enough for a judge to issue some type of ruling ordering the government to do—or not do—something accused the government of “snubbing rulings, providing false information, failing to turn over evidence, quietly working around court orders and inventing pretexts to carry out actions that have been blocked.”

That data suggests there are real reasons for the courts to be concerned about whether the Trump administration is gearing up to actively flout the authority of the Article III branch of government in a direct and unequivocal fashion. So far, the government has offered attenuated excuses for its most flagrant abuses, transparently designed to give them lawful ground to stand on. But as whistleblower allegations emerged during the shameful proceedings that led, just yesterday, to the confirmation of former Trump criminal defense lawyer Emil Bove to be a Third Circuit Judge, it became increasingly clear that they were just that, excuses. Bove, multiple witnesses confirm, had gone so far as to suggest that the government’s response to any judicial checks on Donald Trump’s plans to deport people to foreign prisons or war-torn countries would be “F***” the courts.”

Given that predicate, it should come as no surprise that judges are actively concerned. When the Judicial Conference of the United States met recently, the issue surfaced. That resulted in the Justice Department filing a complaint against District Judge James “Jeb” Boasberg. There is no way to soft-pedal this. The Trump administration wants to go to war with the federal judiciary. They’ve been moving that direction ever since the start of this administration.

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DOJ wants to scare federal judges into compliance with the administration’s views. It wants judges to discipline their own, simply for doing their jobs. The complaint is reminiscent of this administration’s efforts to bring universities, newspapers, law firms, and others to heel, only this time their target is a co-equal branch of government. Trump can’t use an executive order, because they only affect the executive branch of government. Judge Boasberg’s comments at the Judicial Conference, where he was representing his fellow judges and voicing the concern they must all have at this point, were entirely appropriate. He simply put to voice something that has to be a concern for federal judges across the country. But it became an opportunity to send a message to the federal judiciary. One that every judge in this nation must find the courage to reject.

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