The judges weren’t random casualties of bureaucratic reshuffling; they were a pattern. Each had a record of granting asylum at higher-than-average rates, of treating frightened families and persecuted dissidents as people instead of statistics. In a system where the administration publicly promised crackdowns and record deportations, their compassion became a liability. The message was unmistakable: neutrality was no longer enough—alignment was expected.
Into the vacuum stepped a new wave of hires: military lawyers, prosecutors, and attorneys fast-tracked under loosened standards. Many are capable, some deeply principled, but the structural tilt is obvious. When the people deciding life-or-death cases are selected for how closely they track the government’s goals, due process becomes a performance, not a protection. The judges who disappeared are a warning: once you normalize engineering the bench, the next rights on the line might not belong to strangers at all.
