Trump-appointed judge permanently ends Proud Boys' Jan 6 case, says Constitution left him no choice

A Trump-appointed judge just did something that ought to embarrass anyone who thinks the law bends to whoever put the robe on. He dismissed the Proud Boys leaders' convictions, sure, but he didn't do it quietly or gladly. He called January 6th an attack on democracy while he signed the order, which tells you this wasn't some partisan gift wrapped in a bow. It was a judge saying the Constitution tied his hands even though his own instincts clearly ran the other way.

That distinction matters more than the headline. There's a real difference between a court bending over backwards to help defendants it likes and a court following a legal mandate it doesn't particularly enjoy following. This looks like the second thing. Judges aren't supposed to rule based on how much they personally despise the underlying conduct, and this one apparently didn't. That's not corruption. That's the system doing what it's designed to do even when it produces an outcome nobody finds satisfying.

We understand why this stings for people who watched the Capitol get stormed and want every last conviction to stick. But if the legal reasoning is sound, and the judge himself is telling you it forced his hand against his own judgment, then pretending this is just Trump-world settling scores misses what actually happened in that courtroom. The country doesn't get to demand rule of law only when the outcome flatters us.

What should worry people more is how quickly this story will get flattened into a simple partisan narrative, when the actual record shows a judge wrestling with the law and reaching a conclusion he clearly didn't relish. That's worth more attention than another round of outrage.