James Robart, the federal judge who halted President Trump’s immigration ban, spent more than thirty years in private practice before taking the bench.
He gave up a lucrative career representing breweries, energy companies and Southeast Asian immigrants.
Trump, after the judge’s actions, demeaned him as a “so called judge.” Robart was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2004 after receiving unanimous support from the U.S. Senate.
In his testimony during his confirmation, Robart said he saw the law as a way to help people who feel they’ve been wronged, or that the odds are unfairly stacked against them. “…You need to treat everyone with dignity”, he stated.
Senator Patrick Leahy, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee reacted to Trump’s attack on Robart.
‘The President’s hostility toward the rule of law is not just embarrassing, it is dangerous…he is attempting to bully and disparage yet another Federal Judge…for having the audacity to do his job and apply the rule of law.”1
It is during difficult and divisive times that the importance of an independent judiciary becomes clear.
by Patrick Gaffney
1 Hughes, Trevor. “Meet James Robart, the judge who halted Trump’s immigration ban.” USA Today. February 4, 2007.
