Judiciary
Citing ‘assault on the rule of law,’ federal judge appointed by Reagan resigns so he can speak out
Senior U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf of the District of Massachusetts has resigned from the bench, citing a Trump administration “assault on the rule of law” that compels him to speak out. (Photo by Martha Stewart, CC-BY-SA-4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
A federal judge appointed in 1985 by then-President Ronald Reagan has resigned from the bench, citing a Trump administration “assault on the rule of law” that compels him to speak out.
Writing at the Atlantic, Senior U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf of the District of Massachusetts said he can “no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom.”
“President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution and possible punishment,” Wolf wrote in the Nov. 9 article. “This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me.”
Wolf said he hopes to join other former federal judges and ambassadors who are opposing government efforts to “undermine the principled, impartial administration of justice.” He finds nothing more important than joining them “and doing everything in my power to combat today’s existential threat to democracy and the rule of law,” he wrote.
Wolf said he joined the U.S. Department of Justice near the end of then-President Richard Nixon’s time in office as a special assistant to the deputy attorney general and later became a special assistant to then-U.S. Attorney General Edward Levi. He went on to become the chief federal prosecutor of public corruption in Massachusetts. As a federal judge, he oversaw the prosecution of two Boston mobsters, administering justice “without fear or favor,” he wrote.
Bloomberg Law’s coverage of the article described Wolf as “a notably outspoken senior judge” who testified before a U.S. Senate panel in 2023. He spoke about his concerns regarding the U.S. Judicial Conference’s handling of ethics complaints against U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over financial disclosures.
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