Federal judges appointed by Ronald Reagan are openly rebuking President Donald Trump, issuing rare, blunt rulings that are rattling the Republican Party. What was once unthinkable—senior conservative jurists calling out a sitting GOP president—is now unfolding in courtrooms across the country.
It started with U.S. District Judge William Young, who blocked the Trump administration from canceling hundreds of research grants focused on gender identity and diversity. But Young went further than legal reasoning—he called the cancellations what he saw them as: racial and LGBTQ discrimination.
“That’s what this is. I would be blind not to call it out,” Young said. “My duty is to call it out.”
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth was equally scathing after Trump pardoned nearly all Jan. 6 defendants. In 37 years on the bench, he wrote, he “could not recall a time when such meritless justifications of criminal activity have gone mainstream.”
“I have been shocked to watch some public figures try to rewrite history, claiming rioters behaved ‘in an orderly fashion’ like ordinary tourists, or martyrizing convicted January 6 defendants as ‘political prisoners’ or even, incredibly, ‘hostages,’” he added. “That is all preposterous.”
Other Reagan judges have joined the chorus. Judge John Coughenour struck down Trump’s birthright citizenship order, writing that, to the president, “the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals.” U.S. Circuit Judge Harvie Wilkinson III slammed the government’s handling of a mistakenly deported resident, calling the conduct “shocking” and a violation of due process.
Young returned to the spotlight in September with a ruling against Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists. Quoting Reagan—“freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction”—he warned Trump may have twisted the sentiment into something “darker, more cynical.”
“I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected,” Young wrote. “Is he correct?”
Taking the Fight Public
Some judges are stepping outside the courtroom. Coughenour spoke publicly about threats tied to Trump cases, calling the damage to the judiciary’s reputation “stunning.” Mark Wolf resigned his senior status to speak freely against Trump, writing in The Atlantic that he could “no longer bear” judicial limits on speech. “Silence, for me, is now intolerable,” he said.
For the GOP, the larger trend is clear: senior conservative judges are openly challenging Trump. Wolf put it bluntly: “I decided all of my cases based on the facts and the law, without regard to politics, popularity, or my personal preferences. This is the opposite of what is happening now.”
The old guard of the judiciary, once seen as a pillar of conservative stability, is now speaking without filters. Their unprecedented rebellion has left the Republican Party—and the president—on edge.
