The vitriol aimed at our judiciary is undermining its independence and threatening our constitutional rights.
By Mark Chalos
Guest Columnist to The Tennessean, published Oct. 8, 2025
Few safeguards are as critical as the courts are to preserving our constitutional rights.
Courts have, throughout our nation’s history, been the last line of defense against overreaching politicians and the self-serving agendas of special interests. Free speech, religious liberty and jury trials are among the fundamental rights that courts have diligently protected against unrelenting assaults. The protection of our basic rights sometimes arises in contexts where powerful interests are aligned against us.
Courts are only able to protect our constitutional rights if they remain independent and free from undue influence – particularly when the defense of our rights diverges from the current whims of the loudest voices.
An independent judiciary is foundational to our country
The importance of independent judges is foundational to our country. Consider what one of theFramers of our Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, wisely observed in Federalist No. 78:
“This independence of the judges is equally requisite to guard the Constitution and the rights of individuals from the effects of those ill humors, which the arts of designing men, or the influence of particular conjunctures, sometimes disseminate among the people themselves.”
Two-hundred years later, President Ronald Reagan, quoting favorably one of his Supreme Court nominees,
said:
“Federal judges are not appointed to decide cases according to the latest opinion polls. They are appointed to decide cases impartially, according to law. But when judicial nominees are assessed and treated like political candidates… the effect… will be… to endanger the independence of the judiciary.”
Judges are pressured to bow to political interests, endangering our rights
Lately, some powerful interests – inside and outside government – have undertaken a strategy of personally attacking judges who make legal rulings with which they disagree. The go-to rhetoric is typically the allegation that the judge is an “extremist” from the opposing political viewpoint.
For example, one high-level government official recently accused a judge who made a ruling he didn’t like as being part of a “legal insurrection.” Another government official who disagreed with a series of rulings hurled a range of insults at various judges, including calling them “incompetent,” “crooked,” “USA hating” and “monsters.” Criticizing judges publicly is by no means a recent invention and has not historically been exclusive to one political party.
But it certainly seems to have heated up in intensity and vitriol recently.
The drumbeat of criticism of judges has evidently had an impact. Esteem for the judiciary reached record lows in 2024, with only 35% of U.S. respondents expressing confidence in the judiciary in one poll. In another recent poll, half the respondents expressed disapproval for the Supreme Court.
This is bad for our country. When judges operate in a politicized environment, under extreme pressure to bow to the will of powerful interests, the rights of all of us are in danger.
Why an independent judiciary is a must
While it might be tempting to applaud when the government silences someone whose opinions we disagree with – even vehemently – the damage such an infringement causes to the right to free speech is universal. Either we all have this right, or none of us do.
And it is important to remember an immutable fact from our country’s history: the political pendulum has always swung both ways. While a ruling group might seem invincibly entrenched, it always, if American history is any guide, has eventually found itself firmly out of power. And political winds change swiftly.
We, as citizens, must have an independent judiciary. Our Constitution provides critical protections against an overreaching government. When the government and other powerful interests seek to violate our constitutional rights, the courts are our last line of defense.
Our Founders did their part in brilliantly providing us the protection of an independent judiciary; we must do our part to preserve it.
Mark Chalos is the Managing Partner of Lieff Cabraser’s Nashville office and a past-president of the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association.
Contact us
Use the form below to contact a lawyer at Lieff Cabraser.
