President Donald Trump’s second term has been marked by his administration’s attempts to bend or break the law and lashing out at judges who stand in the way. The administration’s remarks against judges led one of Trump’s own judicial appointees to speak out in a published opinion on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen noted that in recent months, executive officials and their spokespeople “have described federal district judges across the country as ‘left-wing,’ ‘liberal,’ ‘activists,’ ‘radical,’ ‘politically minded,’ ‘rogue,’ ‘unhinged,’ ‘outrageous, overzealous, [and] unconstitutional,’ ‘[c]rooked,’ and worse.”......

But he wrote that “this concerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate.”......

“Much as the Executive fights the characterization, a lawsuit by the executive branch of government against the judicial branch for the exercise of judicial power is not ordinary,” Cullen wrote in dismissing the case, adding: “Whatever the merits of its grievance with the judges of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, the Executive must find a proper way to raise those concerns.”,,,,,,

Notably, Cullen cited the Abrego case in his ruling Tuesday. Specifically, he cited an opinion from April by appellate Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a Reagan appointee who has likewise called out the administration’s actions.

Cullen and Wilkinson haven’t been the only GOP appointees to do so. It’s unlikely they’ll be the last.