If you’re like me, anytime you hear or see a news story now that starts out with: “X number of such-and-such experts” or “former intelligence officials” or “retired military officers” or some such “sign letter saying Y,” you’ve learned to discount it. We’re supposed to be impressed by the appeal to authority and/or the number of those signing off on a proposition. 

We aren’t. Not even when they’re judges. 

Now, it pains me a bit to say that because I’m a firm believer in the judiciary and its having a critical role in our governance. And, as a recovering lawyer myself, one who practiced law in multiple courts before multiple judges over the course of almost three decades, respect for the bench is ingrained. I’m well acquainted with the fact that rulings often don’t go the way we want them to, but primed to start from the premise that judges know what they’re doing and get it right more often than not. They get that “wisdom of Solomon” deference, which, I realize, is often unwarranted. I’m simply acknowledging my default setting on this. 

So when I saw the story several days ago about “42 retired judges” having signed off on an “open letter” criticizing the Trump administration’s indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, I semi-dismissed it. I knew not to put much stock in it — that it was likely a cohort of NeverTrump sorts being trotted out to sound impressive; that I’d probably disagree with their take; and that, in the whole scheme of things, it wasn’t worth the ink or digital space used to create it. I wrote it off. 

But then, while listening to my favorite podcast (“America This Week”) on Saturday, hosts Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn fleshed it out a bit more, and I was stunned at the absolute absurdity of the portions of the letter they shared. 

So, I felt compelled to search it out myself and see if it was as dunderheaded as it sounded. Indeed, it was and is, so, as I did with the narrative of the left following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, I now feel compelled to deconstruct this ridiculous letter authored/signed by what I am now referring to as the Resistance Judiciary™️.