Five or six years ago, I was in federal court on an evidence motion. I don’t remember the issue, the claim, or whether I was for or against the motion. What I do remember like it happened today is the exchange I had with the judge.

An attorney for the opposing side made an accusation about my client’s conduct in discovery, prompting Judge Ruben Castillo to ask me if what they just told him was true. But the way they worded it, whether it was true or not true depended on several variables- if this, then that, if that, then yes but still possibly no because blah blah blah. I wasn’t sure about all those moving parts, but I didn’t map them out in my answer, because Castillo had already communicated his impatience. Maybe he was irritated with my client, maybe it was our theory of the case, or maybe it was just me. I’ll never know. So I skipped the exposition, and responded as sparely as I could, being truthful while avoiding any statement of fact that might turn out to be false or at least ambiguous.

It was the wrong decision. At the end of my answer, Castillo glared at me, then turned his face away to study the paneling. After a pause that lasted a week, he dramatically sucked air through clenched teeth and emphasized every word. “That. Was. A. Very. Very. Careful. Answer. Ms. Haake.”

. . .

In 30 years of federal litigation, I have never heard an attorney tell a federal judge that he didn’t have to answer his questions. On rare occasions when legitimate confidentiality issues arise, attorneys may answer the judge’s questions under seal, but they never tell the judge he can’t ask. Most members of the federal trial bar would likely agree that Kambli and every Trump lawyer who openly flouts judicial rules should be sanctioned under Rule 11; we don’t need scofflaws brandishing law licenses to mock the very foundation of the legal system to which we have dedicated our lives.

By now it is obvious that the Trump administration disobeyed a direct order from a federal judge. History books will regard March 15 as the day American democracy retreated, not with a bang but with a whimper and a side order of snark.

. . .