2 weeks ago
22
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Judge Mark L. Wolf, writing in The Atlantic, said he was stepping down to speak out against the “assault on the rule of law” by President Trump, whom he accused of “targeting his adversaries.”
Nov. 9, 2025Updated 6:05 p.m. ET
A federal judge warned of an “existential threat to democracy” in a searing first-person essay published on Sunday, saying he had stepped down from the bench to speak out against President Trump. He accused Mr. Trump of “using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment.”
The judge, Mark L. Wolf, wrote in The Atlantic magazine that Mr. Trump’s actions were “contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench.”
The publication of the essay by Judge Wolf, 78, came two days after an announcement by the Federal District Court for Massachusetts that he was leaving his post as a senior-status judge.
An appointee of President Ronald Reagan who also served in the Justice Department during the Ford administration, Judge Wolf offered one of the most explicit expressions of concern for the rule of law to come from a member of the federal judiciary amid Mr. Trump’s efforts to vastly expand the scope of presidential power.
His seat on the court was filled by Judge Indira Talwani, a nominee of President Barack Obama, in 2014, after he stepped down from active service to senior status, a form of semi-retirement.
In a phone interview, Judge Wolf said he had resigned not only to speak more freely about his own views, but also those of colleagues who were still on the bench. “I hope to be a spokesperson for embattled judges who, consistent with the code of conduct, feel they cannot speak candidly to the American people,” he said.
