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Good morning. It is 11 a.m. on the East Coast, 8 a.m. in the West. I'm Ali Valshi, joining you from the brand new MS Now Studios in Times Square,

and we begin this hour with new signals from inside the government of a critical crisis of faith

and a growing protest of conscience. When former federal judge Mark Wolfe announced last

Friday that he was giving up his lifetime appointment, he didn't retreat quietly into retirement.

Quite the opposite. He stepped straight into the spotlight to sound the alarm about what he calls

Donald Trump's assault on the rule of law and the existential threat to democracy that he believes

Donald Trump poses. And on Tuesday, just days after leaving the federal bench, he reemerged

with purpose, introduced

as senior counsel at the Boston litigation firm Todd and Weld, a firm known for its strong

public interest work. Wolf was just 38 years old when President Ronald Reagan appointed him

to the federal bench in 1985. Before that, he served in the Department of Justice

and later as a federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, where he led the public corruption unit in Boston.

His life's work, he writes, rests on upholding a simple creed to decide cases on the facts and the law,

dispensing justice equally for everyone without fear or favor.

But what he sees happening now, he says, is altogether different.

So why walk away after dedicating decades to the bench?

Why not stay and defend the system from within?

Writing in the Atlantic, Wolf says he could no longer be bound by the ethical rules that

silence judges outside the courtroom,

not while the law itself is being weaponized by Trump to attack critics, to shield corrupt allies,

and to undermine independent institutions, including big law. In the judge's own words,

...