Attacks on judicial independence

Judicial independence requires that judges decide cases on the law and the facts, free from threat or coercion from political actors. Attacks on independence include public threats of impeachment for unwelcome rulings, organized campaigns to delegitimize specific judges or panels, statutory proposals to strip jurisdiction from courts that have ruled against the administration, court-packing schemes intended to produce predetermined outcomes, and refusal to enforce judgments. Routine criticism of opinions is ordinary; attacks are what happens when the goal is to alter how judges decide future cases through pressure or institutional restructuring.