Former Judges Slam DOJ Remarks: ‘Pouring Oil’ on Fire

A group of former federal judges sharply criticized a top Justice Department official this week for characterizing court battles unfolding during President Donald Trump’s second term as a “war” on so-called “activist judges,” remarks they called needlessly inflammatory and amounting to “pouring gasoline” on an already burning fire.

Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, spoke colorfully last week at a fireside chat hosted by the Federalist Society. Blanche used her time to criticize federal judges for suspending or blocking some of Trump’s biggest executive orders and actions since January and to urge young lawyers and law students in the audience to fight back.

“This is a war,” Blanche said, “and it’s something we won’t win if we don’t keep fighting.”

JUDGES V. TRUMP: HERE ARE THE MAIN JUDICIAL FIGHTS SHUTTING UP THE WHITE HOUSE AGENDA

Judges “wear robes, but they are more political, or as political, than the most liberal governor or DA,” Blanche added.

His remarks sparked a reprimand of the New York State Bar Association and the Article III Coalition, a group of 50 former federal judges appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents.

Todd Blanche, nominee for deputy U.S. attorney general, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, DC, February 12. (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

This type of rhetoric, “particularly when expressed by high-ranking officials, not only endangers judges and court staff, but also undermines public confidence in the judiciary as an impartial and equal branch of government,” the justices said in a letter.

In a series of interviews this week, several former judges told Fox News Digital they were shocked by Blanche’s remarks, which they described as a departure from long-standing Justice Department standards and a threat to the judiciary both as an institution and to the individual judges who serve on the bench.

A judge said Blanche’s remarks were “wildly different from any previous decades and under any previous administration” he has experienced during his more than 60-year career in Washington.

“I’ve been in Washington since 1974, continuously, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Paul R. Michel, former chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Michel served as a special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation, a role in which he personally interviewed former President Nixon.

“It’s just surprising that the deputy attorney general is functioning as a public relations ‘henchman’ instead of a law enforcement official,” he said of Blanche’s remarks.

Michel and other members of the group of retired judges told Fox News Digital that they are concerned that the rhetoric used could further erode public confidence in the judiciary, a branch that the framers designed to interpret the law impartially and to serve as a check against the excesses of other branches, regardless of politics or the administration in charge.

They noted that while parties often disagree with a decision or short-term temporary order or motion, the Department of Justice and opposing parties have a readily available mechanism to seek relief through the appeals process.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S BAN ON BIRTH CITIZENSHIP FOR ALL CHILDREN, TESTING POWERS OF LOWER COURTS

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks as President Donald Trump looks on during a news conference in the Oval Office, October 15, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Parties seeking to challenge a temporary order or other form of injunctive relief can ask the district court to evaluate a case on the merits, remanding it to the U.S. Court of Appeals, and in some cases the Supreme Court, for review, Philip Pro, a former U.S. district judge in Nevada appointed by President Ronald Reagan, told Fox News Digital.

Federal judges have attempted to issue short-term or emergency orders temporarily blocking some of Trump’s top policy priorities, including immigration, citizenship rights and mass layoffs in the federal government. The administration responded to the lower courts’ actions by requesting emergency relief from the higher courts, via emergency stays, something Blanche also touted during her remarks last week.

Judges are “totally responsive” by design, Pro said. “We’re sitting in our districts. Cases are randomly assigned.”

“There is nothing ‘rogue’ about these decisions,” Pro added. “Those wheels squeak slowly, but they squeak extremely well, and that’s how you get resolution.”

Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law who attended the fireside remarks, told Fox News Digital in an interview that he sympathizes with the concerns expressed by the justices, but he also understands the broader issue that Blanche may have been trying to address, namely the power the courts have to review the actions of the executive branch.

This has emerged as a particular problem not only for Trump but also for his predecessors, each of whom sought to implement some of his policy priorities through executive orders in an effort to avoid a clumsy and slow-moving Congress.

These actions are therefore more vulnerable to emergency intervention by the federal courts, Blackman said, although the extent to which judges can or should act in this space is an ongoing debate.

“I don’t view Blanche’s comments as a call for violence,” Blackman said. “I think it’s more about saying that there is just this struggle between the executive branch and the judiciary which is not normal.”

COMEY SEEKS TO DROP CRIMINAL CASE BY CALLING Trump’s ATTORNEY ‘ILLEGAL’ APPOINTMENT

The Supreme Court building (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Trump is far from the first president to publicly complain about “activist” judges who obstruct his policies. Such criticism goes back several decades and concerns, among others, former presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon.

The judges nevertheless say they are concerned by Blanche’s comments, which are a radical departure from what they experienced during their own careers, particularly when they were federal prosecutors.

“Calling judges ‘thugs’ because they apply the law in a politically unfavorable manner is a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of the judiciary in our constitutional structure,” Allyson K. Duncan, a former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, said in a statement.

Michel, the former special prosecutor in charge of the Watergate investigation, noted that he had worked for two successive assistant attorneys general in the “exact position that Blanche currently occupies” but that he had given very different marching orders.

“Their instructions were given to me: ‘Politics is not within the boundaries of Department of Justice employees,’ and politics must ‘have no influence,'” he said. “We were not to pay any attention to what anyone in the White House might say, in the media or elsewhere. We were to be a ‘politics-free zone.’

Deputy United States Attorney General Todd Blanche, accompanied by President Donald Trump, speaks during a press conference on recent Supreme Court decisions in the Briefing Room of the White House June 27, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

“It seemed very appropriate,” Michel said. “The power to investigate, the power to indict and the power to prosecute and convict are awesome powers,” he added.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The group also raised concerns for colleagues who remain on the job at a time when public threats against judges have increased, according to U.S. Marshals data. This includes online harassment, threats of physical violence and “doxxing” judges into their homes by sending them unsolicited pizzas. Some deliveries were made on behalf of the son of a judge who was shot and killed in 2020 after opening the door for a disgruntled individual disguised as a delivery person.

The number of threats made against federal judges in 2025 exceeded those in the previous 12 months, according to the US Marshals Service, prompting Congress to act.

“Assistant Attorney General Blanche’s remarks reflect a reality the Justice Department faces every day: a growing number of activist judges attempting to set national policy from the bench,” a Justice Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday in response to a request for comment.

“The Department will continue to uphold the Constitution, defend its lawful authorities, and respond when activists’ decisions threaten public safety or undermine the will of the American people.”