From the gavel to the grave: why freedom is at risk when judges are punished.

By Colonel Ezra Stone (Ret.) | April 26, 2025

History has a warning that is clear.

When a nation’s judges are arrested for doing their duty — defending the rights of individuals against the weight of government power — the Republic does not stumble quietly. It roars toward a cliff. Freedom is at risk.

This week, two American judges — one sitting, one recently retired — were arrested under federal charges. Their crime?

Not corruption.
Not personal enrichment.
Not betrayal of the law.

No, their crime, it seems, was standing between the machinery of government and the citizens it sought to crush.

History has a word for this moment: danger.

The Quiet Cornerstone of Liberty

A free nation does not rest on elections alone. It rests on the independent judiciary — a group of men and women tasked with one sacred responsibility: to hold the line when every other institution bends.

Judges are not supposed to serve political masters. They serve the Constitution.
They protect the weak against the strong.
The individual against the mob.
The citizen against the state.

When a judge uses their power to shield an individual from unjust arrest or abuse, they are not “obstructing justice.”
They are performing it.

In authoritarian regimes throughout history, the first step toward unchecked power is always the same: break the courts.
Bend the judges.
Or remove them.

If they cannot be bought or bullied — arrest them.

Historical Parallels: How Republics Fall

You don’t have to look far back to find the pattern.

• In Nazi Germany, the early years of Hitler’s rule saw judges who resisted dismissed, disbarred, and sometimes imprisoned.

• In Stalin’s Soviet Union, judges who dared to question politically-driven prosecutions found themselves accused of treason themselves.

• In Venezuela, courts were stacked, threatened, and gutted — not with a single decree, but through a steady campaign of fear against any judge who dared to uphold constitutional protections.

In every case, it followed the same script:
First they discredit the courts.
Then they criminalize the judges.
Finally, they erase the rights of the people altogether.

America has not crossed that line yet.
But this week, we moved dangerously closer.

The Danger of Normalizing the Unthinkable

Some will tell you:
“Well, these judges broke the law.”
“No one is above accountability.”
“There must have been good reasons.”

But patriotism requires something deeper than easy slogans.
Patriotism demands vigilance.

When a judge refuses to rubber-stamp government overreach, that is not an act of criminality — that is the very heart of the judicial oath.

When the state responds by turning its prosecutorial power on the judge themselves, it sends a chilling message to every courthouse in the land:
“Fall in line. Or fall.”

The Constitution does not defend itself.
It relies on men and women — judges, juries, and everyday citizens — willing to endure personal risk to keep it alive.

When we allow fear, not law, to dictate who wears the robe, we do not deserve to call ourselves free.

A Call to Memory — And a Call to Action

I was sworn to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Many of you were, too.

The enemies of liberty do not always announce themselves with armies on the border.
Sometimes, they wear suits.
They carry badges.
They speak in careful legalisms about “public safety” and “order.”

But at the end of the day, they serve power, not principle.

The Founders knew this day would come.
They left us a roadmap:

• Independent courts

• Checks and balances

• An armed and educated citizenry

But they left us something else, too: a warning.

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

Not vigilance against foreign invaders alone —
Vigilance against the slow, cancerous spread of fear, force, and forgetting.

Today, two judges sit in custody for standing on principle.
Tomorrow, if we do nothing, it will be us.

The Verdict Is Ours

No matter your party.
No matter your politics.

If you believe in America —
If you believe in freedom —
You must defend the right of judges to do their jobs without fear of arrest.

You must reject the siren song of authoritarian excuses.
You must remember the lessons of history.

Because once the gavel breaks, the sword is all that remains.