**Reagan-appointed judge resigns, citing threats to judicial independence**<\/p>\n
BOSTON \u2014 Senior U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, has resigned from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, saying he intends to speak publicly about what he describes as an assault on judicial independence and the rule of law.<\/p>\n
In a resignation statement and an essay published in The Atlantic, Wolf said he could no longer remain constrained by the limits on what sitting judges may say outside the courtroom. He argued that the legal system was being used in a partisan way to reward allies and punish opponents. Wolf, who took senior status in 2013, said his departure would not create a vacancy for a new presidential appointment.<\/p>\n
Wolf cited more than 50 years in public service, including work at the Department of Justice beginning in 1974 during post-Watergate reforms and service under Attorney General Edward Levi in the Ford administration. Those years, he said, shaped his belief that justice must be administered without fear or favor. \u201cSilence, for me, is now intolerable,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson rejected the criticism, saying judges who seek to inject personal agendas into the legal system should leave the bench rather than remain on it. She pointed to Supreme Court decisions and other rulings that have upheld administration policies despite repeated legal challenges.<\/p>\n
The announcement arrives months before the November midterm elections, as both parties intensify fundraising and legal fights over campaign spending. Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said Republicans hold a substantial financial edge, with conservative-aligned groups potentially raising about $800 million compared with roughly $350 million on the Democratic side. He said pending court rulings on coordinated campaign spending could further reshape the financial landscape.<\/p>\n
The episode highlights persistent tensions in Washington over the independence of the courts and the role of money in a closely contested election year. Wolf has said he plans to continue speaking and working outside the judiciary on issues of democratic norms and equal justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
**Reagan-appointed judge resigns, citing threats to judicial independence** BOSTON \u2014 Senior U.S. District Judge Mark L. Wolf, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985, has resigned from the U.S. District … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpdaily.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}