ICE’s dramatic intrusion into the business of the Marlborough District Court came within days of the filing of an unprecedented joint legal action against the agency by prosecutors from two of the state’s largest counties, together with public defenders at the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services. These courtroom opponents joined forces against the federal government to allege that the dramatic rise in courthouse arrests carried out under Trump had “paralyzed the effective administration of justice” throughout greater Boston and beyond. They contend, correctly, that federal interference with state criminal matters is a violation of the Tenth Amendment and the state sovereignty of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

This historic lawsuit was announced days after Massachusetts federal prosecutors criminally indicted a sitting state judge simply for keeping order in her own courthouse. The case involves Judge Shelley Joseph, who acted completely within her authority after prosecutors dropped a pending charge against a defendant in state custody. Joseph had been notified ICE was on site to arrest this defendant so, after confirming dismissal of the charge, she instructed a court officer to escort the defendant downstairs to the lockup so he could meet with his attorney and be processed for release. Joseph’s routine order has almost certainly already cost her a judgeship; her law license and possibly even her freedom are now also on the line. (One important point, which has been overlooked in the media frenzy surrounding this indictment: If ICE agents had followed their own internal guidelines—specifically designed to minimize public disturbance in the course of arrests—they could have almost certainly apprehended the defendant outside the courthouse rather than in the lobby.)

The charges against Judge Joseph are shamelessly political, completely unprecedented in American legal history, and the implications should be of grave concern to everyone. Yet the law-and-order-loving pundits on conservative media celebrated the charges, and #MAGA Twitter exploded with calls for Joseph’s execution.

A student of American political science transported from, say, 20 years ago might fairly wonder why the “small government conservatives” and defenders of “states’ rights” traditionally associated with the modern Republican Party have not rushed to the defense of Judge Joseph and local law enforcement in the face of plain federal overreach. That not a single prominent Republican has done so is more proof that the party of Trump is not just morally unmoored, but also philosophically adrift.