To those with a weather eye out for the politicization of our courts we commend Michael Kunzelman’s dispatch from the Associated Press this morning. It quotes several federal judges as saying they fear more political violence as Election Day nears. “On the cusp of the next presidential election,” the AP reports, “some of those judges fear another burst of political violence could be coming.” If that sounds benign, we say, read on.

The AP quotes a United States district judge, Reggie Walton, as saying — in a recent hearing — that he prays that Americans accept the outcome of next month’s election. Not that the election is run according to Hoyle but that it’s accepted no matter what. He’s not worried about the Democrats. He “expressed concern,” as the AP puts it, “that Donald Trump and his allies are spreading the same sort of conspiracy theories that fueled the mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, riot.”

“That sore loser is saying the same things he said before,” Judge  Walton, who was nominated by President George W. Bush, is quoted by the AP as having said earlier this month —  without, the AP notes, mentioning the Republican presidential nominee by name. “He’s riling up the troops again, so if he doesn’t get what he wants, it’s not inconceivable that we will experience that same situation again. And who knows? It could be worse.”

The AP quotes another judge, Jia Cobb, a Biden nominee, as saying, “It scares me to think about what will happen if anyone on either side is not happy with the results of the election.” That was  during a sentencing hearing last month for four Capitol rioters. The AP quotes Judge Rudolph Contreras as lamenting the potential for what the AP calls “more politically motivated violence.” He was sentencing a Colorado man, Jeffrey Sabol, who helped rioters. 

“It doesn’t take much imagination to imagine a similar call coming out in the coming months, and the court would be concerned that Mr. Sabol would answer that call in the same way,” Judge Contreras, a nominee of President Obama, is quoted by the AP as saying in March, when he sentenced Sabol to more than five years in prison. “Trump’s distortion of the Jan. 6 attack has been a cornerstone of his bid to reclaim the White House,” the AP states.

Then again also, too, some polls and analyses suggest a possibility, or even likelihood, of President Trump winning the 2024 election by a whisker. The press has been full of stories about the terrible things a Trump administration might do. Yet the odd thing is that we haven’t seen reports of how the judges are worried about the possibility of what anti-Trump riotors protesters might do if the Democrats lose the election in a close vote. Are there any judges worried about that?