Professor Nahmod on An Independent Federal Judiciary: Our First Line of Defense

By Professor Sheldon Nahmod

An independent federal judiciary is an indispensable part of our system of checks and balances. One of the important purposes of checks and balances, as contemplated by the Framers, is to prevent the seizure by factions of Congress and the Executive Branch. Another is to prevent over-reaching by both branches of government.

At this point the Trump administration is not likely, for political reasons, to be checked by either House of Congress, so it is the federal judiciary that will have to do much of the heavy lifting. For that reason, we all should vehemently protest the President’s recent ad hominem attacks on two federal judges: the federal judge presiding over the Trump University case and the federal judge in Seattle who recently issued a temporary restraining order against much of the President’s executive immigration order. Though the Supreme Court is our last resort, the entire federal judiciary is our first line of defense and must be protected at all costs.

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