Speak Up For Justice - A Call To The Bar

 

By Christopher Walsh

The Honorable John C. Coughenour, Judge Sabrina M. Ahrens, and Judge Steven J. Krupa Bring an URGENT Message to the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association.

 

On March 11, attorneys and members of the local legal community gathered at the University of Washington Tacoma for an event that was equal parts sobering and galvanizing. The program, "Speak Up for Justice," brought together Honorable John C. Coughenour of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Sabrina M. Ahrens, and Tacoma Municipal Court Judge Steven J. Krupa. The message they delivered was clear and urgent: the judiciary is under threat, and legal professionals must respond.

Judge Coughenour was appointed to the Federal Bench in 1981 and needs little introduction to this community. In early 2025, Judge Coughenour issued a temporary restraining order and a subsequent preliminary injunction blocking a Presidential Executive Order that sought to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to non-citizen parents—a right guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment since 1868. Calling the order “blatantly unconstitutional” during a hearing, Judge Coughenour said further: “[I]n this courtroom and under my watch, the rule of law is a bright beacon which I intend to follow.”[1] What followed was unlike anything he had experienced in his long career on the bench.

At the March 11 event, three voicemails Judge Coughenour received in the wake of his rulings were played to the audience. The room went quiet. The recordings were filled with vitriol, obscenities, and explicit death threats. These calls were not the frustrated ventings of disappointed litigants. They were calls for violence against a Federal Judge for performing the precise function our Constitution assigns to the judiciary: to interpret and apply the law, without regard to political consequence.

Unfortunately for the Honorable Judge Coughenour and his family, the threats did not stop there. Shortly thereafter, five sheriff ’s deputies arrived at Judge Coughenour’s home carrying assault rifles. They had been dispatched in response to a fabricated report that Judge Coughenour had murdered his wife. When Judge Coughenour opened the door and the deputies asked to see his wife, his response was: “Whatever for?” The next day, a bomb squad arrived at his home to respond to a threat that an explosive device had been placed in his mailbox.

In the midst of this, a sitting member of Congress from Tennessee published a “Wanted”-style poster featuring photographs of various Federal Judges, including Judge Coughenour, claiming that the judges named were “woke,” “activist,” judges, working “against the American people.”[2] The poster stopped just short of the words “dead or alive.” These kinds of messages have proliferated political intimidation, threats, and violence, and emboldened those inclined to carry out such attacks.[3]

The Honorable Judge Coughenour has served through contentious times, high-profile cases, and decades of legal and political change. He told those gathered that he does not believe this moment is a response to judiciary making poor decisions. He believes it reflects a far more nefarious: trend undermining public confidence in the rule of law. The consequences of that conclusion are showing up on the doorsteps of judges and their families across the country.

When the judges were asked about the state of our institutions, the sentiment shared was that we are closer to fundamental fracture than at any prior point in living memory. What the judges emphasized was that the erosion of the judiciary does not happen all at once. It happens incrementally, in the steady accumulation of derision and mistrust: In viral social media posts, in offhand comments by public officials, and yes, in the casual remarks that lawyers themselves sometimes make in front of clients and colleagues. When a lawyer says “The judge got it wrong” to a client or colleague, it is another brick in the wall between the public and the institutions that protect them.

What judges ask of all attorneys is simple: respect the rule of law and expand that respect within your spheres of influence. Correct misconceptions when you encounter them. Model confidence in the system, even if or when you disagree with a particular outcome. Lawyers are uniquely positioned to serve as a stabilizing force and likewise are uniquely obligated to do so. As Judge Coughenour repeated several times to the lawyers at the event, there is more potential for influence in a room full of lawyers than in most places in the country.

The Washington State Bar Association has created a program aimed to equip lawyers for this kind of engagement with their communities: the Rule of Law Ambassador Program.[4] The program is built on the foundational obligations already embedded in our rules of professional conduct. The RPC Preamble reminds us that lawyers “should further the public’s  understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the justice system because legal institutions in a constitutional democracy depend on popular participation and support to maintain their authority.”[5] Likewise, General Rule 12.2 charges the WSBA to “promote understanding of and respect for our legal system and the law.”[6] The Ambassador Program turns those obligations into action.

Participation in the Ambassador Program is accessible to every attorney, regardless of practice area or experience level. The WSBA has assembled a growing toolkit of resources, trainings, and programs. Lawyers can also volunteer through the “Lawyers in the Classroom” program, through which attorneys can bring civics education directly to students. As part of the program, a free, on-demand CLE is available, entitled “Rule of Law and Constitutional Crises for Lawyer Ambassadors,” which provides a refresher and discussion of what a “constitutional crisis” actually means, and how it can be explained to non-lawyers. To join the Ambassador mailing list and receive updates on new tools and opportunities, email ambassadors@wsba.org.

At the "Speak Up for Justice" event, the voicemails were played not to frighten the audience, but to make something that can feel abstract very real. Threats to judicial independence are not hypothetical, and they are not the stuff of Law Review articles or Bar Convention panels. Threats of political violence are arriving in the mailboxes, in the voicemails, and on the doorsteps of people who sit on the bench in our courts—the same courts where we practice, where our clients obtain justice, and where the rule of law either holds or it doesn’t.

The message was not for lawyers to get political, but to be professionals and honor the obligations we undertook when we were sworn in as officers of the courts. The panel implored us to use our voices, our relationships, and our standing in our communities to preserve the rule of law and the integrity of our courts. I, like many in attendance, intend to continue doing so.

 

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Christopher Walsh is a trial attorney and co-founder of Walsh & Walsh, PLLC, where he represents policyholders in insurance bad faith and coverage litigation. He has handled dozens of first-party property claims and regularly litigates complex coverage and damages issues in Washington courts.Prior to founding Walsh & Walsh, Christopher represented plaintiffs in complex civil litigation, including insurance coverage disputes, Personal Injury/Wrongful Death, and Workers’ Compensation claims, where he developed a strong foundation in litigation and motion practice.

Christopher is also the current President of the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association New and Young Lawyers Section. He has been a member of the TPCBA since obtaining his license in 2022. He lives in Tacoma with his wife and law partner, Kendall, their young daughter, and two cats, and he enjoys time outdoors, a good game of pool, and a crisp beer.

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[1] Sergio Martinez-Beltran, Second judge blocks Trump’s birthright citizenship order in back-to-back rulings, NPR (Feb. 6, 2025, 4:30 PM), https://www.npr.org/2025/02/05/nx-s1-5288083/maryland-federal-judge-blocks-trumps-birthright-citizenship-order.

[2] Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles), X (Apr. 3, 2025, 11:39 AM), https://x.com/RepOgles/status/1907865433274810677.

[3] See Gregory Svirnovskiy, “Stop fanning these flames”: Judges say White House needs to tone down attacks, Politico (July 31, 2025, 3:49 PM), https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/31/judges-violence-threats-intimidation-00487251.

[4] WSBA, httPS://WWW.WSBA.org/ABout-WSBA/amBASSAdors (last visited Apr. 15, 2026). For an “Ambassador Tool Kit” PDF, visit: https://www.wsba.org/docs/default-source/about-wsba/rule-of-law-ambassador-toolkit-oath-for-print.pdf?sfvrsn=44f41bf1_1.

[5] Rules of Professional Conduct pmbl. (Wash. 2025) 

[6] Wash. Gen. R. 12.2