A version of this letter was sent on February 11, 2025, to leaders of national bar associations, judges, lawyers, and scholars who have participated in the Bolch Judicial Institute’s Defending the Judiciary initiative.
Dear Colleagues,
Many of you are aware that Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a temporary restraining order over the weekend to briefly stop all external access to Treasury Department databases containing millions of Americans’ private financial information until the merits of the case could be decided by the judge to whom the case had been permanently assigned. The order came at the request of 19 state attorneys general who filed a lawsuit late last week asking the court to determine whether DOGE — a task force created by the President and led by businessman Elon Musk to identify and end waste and fraud in the federal government — has the legal authority to access the data.
While the arguments for and against DOGE access to this information will continue to be debated in court and around the country, Judge Engelmayer has quickly become a target of unfair, unwarranted threats and attacks lobbed via social media and news outlets across the country.
As was recently discussed at the Bolch Judicial Institute’s Defending the Judiciary Conference, such attacks must be met with a coordinated response. Even as we continue to learn the facts of this specific lawsuit, there are two things we must immediately stand up and defend: judges who are doing their job to the best of their ability in quickly evolving situations, and the ability of the courts to fulfill their role to interpret and apply the law without fear or favor.
The Bolch Judicial Institute will be working in the coming days to publicly share, via our website, media interviews, and social media campaigns, information that explains why these sorts of attacks are so dangerous and what judges, lawyers, and regular citizens can do to counter them. (I spoke today to the reporter of this Bloomberg article outlining some of the issues at play.) We strongly urge your organizations to do the same. Many of you are well-equipped to issue statements, draft and publish op-eds, speak to reporters, and use social media to defend the independence of the judiciary and to help people understand the seriousness of these challenges to the authority and role of the courts. If you do not have the organizational resources to develop your own materials, we invite you to follow our social media channels (particularly LinkedIn) and re-share our content or that of other bar organizations.
Right now, the tirade online against “activist judges” and “illegitimate courts” is mostly unanswered. We must be the ones to answer in defense of the judiciary. We must vigorously defend judges and the courts as they navigate unprecedented challenges to the separation of powers and the scope of the executive branch’s authority.
Regardless of the outcome of these cases involving the current administration, our country must be able to rest assured in the knowledge that these cases will be resolved as fairly as possible, without fear of recrimination or personal harm to judges, their families, or their staffs. We must do everything in our power to help the public understand why accepting the decisions of the courts — even when you disagree — is so critical to our democracy and the rule of law.
This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. I hope your organization will use this opportunity to put the principles we discussed at our Defending the Judiciary conference into practice. If you are interested in discussing a particular strategy or effort in which you would like to collaborate with the Bolch Judicial Institute, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thank you,
Paul Grimm
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Paul Grimm
David F. Levi Professor of the Practice of Law and
Director, Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School
Senior U.S. District Judge (retired)