During the 2025 CBA Annual Meeting and Luncheon, Chief United States District Judge for the District of Connecticut Micheal P. Shea spoke to members of the CBA about the importance of the rule of law to our society, and condemning the idea that officials can disobey court orders without consequence. He called upon all of us to stand up for the rule of law. His speech is reprinted in full below:
I, too, am here to talk to you about the rule of law. And I want to start out by saying that I do not consider the rule of law to be a partisan matter, and I do not want to give a political speech. The law is there to protect—and punish—Democrats, Republicans, independents, and members of all other political groups equally. That is what rule of law means—the law has dominion over all of us, including members of Congress and executive branch officials.
And judges too. Judges are subject to the law like everyone else; but it is their job to say what the law is, and that has been true at least since Marbury v. Madison. That truth is being questioned now by some who are suggesting that executive branch officials don't have to comply with court orders; and, unfortunately, the judge's job of saying what the law is has become, well, more dangerous than it used to be.
Just ask Jeb Boasberg, the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The President has described Judge Boasberg as his "least favorite judge" and a "radical leftist;" has called for his impeachment; and has suggested that Judge Boasberg is steering cases to himself and is corrupt - all apparently because Judge Boasberg has ruled against his administration in some high-profile immigration cases. His press secretary even went after Judge Boasberg's wife.
I am not here to defend or criticize Judge Boasberg's rulings on the merits. There is, as you know, a process for doing that – an appeal-which the administration is already pursuing.
And I am not here to say you shouldn't criticize judges when they make mistakes on the facts or the law. We judges sign up for that.
But I am here to say that it is wrong to call a judge partisan or corrupt or to attack a judge's family members, and wrong to urge your political allies to impeach the judge, simply because the judge has decided, after doing her best to research the law and apply it to the facts, that your side must lose.
And it is even worse to deliberately disobey a judge's order. Judge Boasberg found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt for deporting certain persons to El Salvador, because, he found, the administration failed to obey his orders to turn around the planes carrying the deportees before they left U.S. airspace. And the Solicitor General recently told the Supreme Court at oral argument that the administration believes it does not always have to follow court orders.
Think of what it would mean in your law practice if it was okay to disobey a judge's order whenever compliance was unpleasant or inconvenient. It doesn't matter whether you are a family lawyer who is depending on an interim order to get your fees paid or a trusts and estates lawyer who is depending on the courts to enforce the wills you write. Every lawyer's livelihood depends on the idea that all persons—no matter who they are—have to comply with a judge's orders unless they are stayed or reversed by a higher court.
And you all took an oath, when you were sworn in to the CT bar, that you would "exercise the office of attorney ... faithfully to both your client and the court"; and if you joined the federal court bar, you also swore that you would support and defend the constitution and laws of the United States.
So standing up for the rule of law, including the need to obey court orders, is your sworn obligation, just as it is mine. That means that the struggle Judge Boasberg is facing right now is your fight too!
How do you join this battle? Not with weapons. Not even with loud, angry words. But instead by patiently educating those around you. By volunteering to read a children's book at your kid's school about why the law matters. By asking your neighbor, when she challenges the authority of judges to hold the President in contempt, whether she thinks it's important that you respect the boundary between your yard and hers. By asking your uncle who thinks unelected judges should not be able to tell elected officials what they cannot do whether he thinks it matters that drivers who are rich or powerful obey traffic lights.
The law regulates all of our interactions, and if the idea takes hold that you don't have to obey the law except when you want to—if the rule of law dies in the hearts and minds of the people we will enter a time of rule by the wealthy, the well-connected, and the strong.
I don't think anyone here wants that. So now is the time to stand up for the rule of law. It isn't tomorrow or a year from now when something even worse happens. The time is now. Don't wait and then find yourself in the position of looking back years from now and wishing you had done something. Please get out there now and educate your fellow citizens on why the rule of law matters.
And my thanks to those among you who are already doing this, and special thanks to the five hundred plus members of the Connecticut Bar who make up the new Rule of Law Committee.
Thank you,
Michael P. Shea
Chief United States District Judge for the District of Connecticut