A federal judge hand-picked by former President Ronald Reagan is stepping down from his lifetime appointment in protest of President Donald Trump, who he accused of launching an “assault on the rule of law.”

“My reason is simple: I no longer can bear to be restrained by what judges can say publicly or do outside the courtroom,” wrote Mark Wolf, who in 2006 became the chief judge of the Court of Massachusetts, in an op-ed published in The Atlantic Sunday.

“President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench.”

Wolf said that his resignation would allow him to more publicly speak out against the Trump administration, as well as support litigation against his administration in an effort to protect “the rule of law and American democracy.” He also intends on advocating for judges that he argued have been hamstrung under pressure and threats from the White House.

Trump has frequently lashed out at federal judges from the Oval Office for rulings he perceives as unfair. In March, he called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who ruled against the administration’s efforts to deport migrants to El Salvador’s notoriously dangerous CECOT prison.

Legal experts have condemned Trump’s attacks on judges as a tool to undermine the independence of the judiciary, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argued Trump’s attacks were “designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity.”

Trump’s attacks on judges have also put their safety at risk, Wolf argued.

“Trump’s angry attacks on the courts have coincided with an unprecedented number of serious threats against judges. There were nearly 200 from March to late May 2025 alone,” Wolf wrote.

“These

included

credible death threats, hundreds of vitriolic phone calls, and anonymous, unsolicited pizza deliveries falsely made in the name of the son of a federal judge, who was murdered in the judge’s home in 2020 by a disgruntled lawyer.”