In preparation for its new role in Trump Regime Media, WorldNetDaily was angry on Donald Trump’s behalf that some judges who had planned to retired changed their minds after Trump won the election. Bob Unruh performed his assigned partisan duty in a Dec. 3 article:
Two Democrat-appointed [sic] judges have decided to “unretire” following President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victories, in both the popular vote and the Electoral College vote.
And their actions have prompted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican whose party soon will be the Senate majority, to warn about the active politicization of the judiciary.
He called the announcements by the two judges, one appointed by Bill Clinton and the other by Barack Obama, an indication of “a political finger on the scale.” He said the incoming Trump administration, backed by GOP majorities in the Senate and House should “explore all available recusal options with these judges.”
[…]The judges who abruptly changed their retirement plans following Trump’s victory, which would mean a Republican president would nominate their replacements, were Judge Algenon Marbley of Ohio and Judge Max Cogburn of North Carolins [sic].
[…]McConnell said the judges are putting “a political finger on the scale.”
He also, according to the report, “warned two sitting circuit court judges, who have announced retirements and have vacancies currently pending before the senate, against making similar decisions to ‘unretire.'”
This being Unruh, he couldn’t resist adding irrelevant partisan commentary:
Under the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris regime over the last four years, the administrative state in Washington has been weaponized in multiple ways against Trump, Republicans and conservatives. One report showed 70% of education enforcement actions against colleges targeted the 10% of institutions that are Christian. Further, the FBI and DOJ openly assembled wild claims against Trump, such as that he improperly had government documents after his first presidency. In contrast, Biden was given a pass for having literally boxes of such documents in his garage after his vice presidency.
Unruh found another senator to complain about an un-retirement in a Dec. 16 article:
Several federal judges have caused an uproar by going completely political and reversing their already announced “retirements” after President Trump’s election victory, meaning he will not now be nominating their replacements.
It was Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who reacted to the latest flip-flop, that by James Wynn of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a Barack Obama judge.
He announced he was rescinding his retirement.
The senator explained, “Judge Wynn’s brazenly partisan decision to rescind his retirement is an unprecedented move that demonstrates some judges are nothing more than politicians in robes. Judge Wynn clearly takes issue with the fact that @realDonaldTrump was just elected President, and this decision is a slap in the face to the U.S. Senate, which came to a bipartisan agreement to hold off on confirming his replacement until the next Congress is sworn-in in January. The Senate Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on his blatant attempt to turn the judicial retirement system into a partisan game, and he deserves the ethics complaints and recusal demands from the Department of Justice heading his way.”
The Washington Examiner said it’s routine for federal judges to time their retirements or ascent to senior status with a change in administration, though it’s rare to see judges change their minds about retirement.
Neither Tillis nor McConnell argued that un-retirement is against the rules, and Unruh also offered no such evidence. And doesn’t Tillis’ complain mean that Republicans were planning to install “politicians in robes,” which would make them no different the un-retiring judges? Unruh didn’t remark on that point.
The next day, Unruh touted a lawfare attack against Wynn:
An organization that monitors judicial activism has filed a complaint over the retirement flip-flopping of Circuit Judge James A. Wynn, asking the 4th Circuit Judicial Council to investigate him for possible misconduct.
It is the Article III Project that has filed a complaint about possible violations of the Code of Conduct for United State Judges following Wynn’s decision to withdraw from his announced retirement plan.
The reversal came right after President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory.
[…]A3P’s complaint makes clear that this sudden reversal was politically motivated and undermines public trust in the judiciary.
“In July 2024, President Biden nominated Ryan Park to replace Judge Wynn. On November 6, 2024, Donald Trump was widely recognized as the winner and President-elect. About two weeks later, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a bipartisan deal for bringing certain pending judicial nominations for a floor vote while declining to bring others who lacked sufficient votes to be confirmed—and Ryan Park’s nomination was one of those in the latter category. Accordingly, it was clear since at least November 21, 2024, that there was a bipartisan deal in the Senate not to confirm Park,” the complaint charges.
Unruh failed to disclose that the Article III Project is a right-wing group that supports Trump and Republican judges — meaning that its lawfare is politically motivated. No evidence was offered that un-retiring is expressly forbidden in judicial codes of conduct.