Donald Trump isn't alone in his eagerness to erode democratic institutions as thoroughly and rapidly as he can. His attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has similarly made it his top priority to undermine the rights of anyone not white enough, or Christian enough, or rich enough to count as a Real American in the Trump era. And he's willing to meddle as directly as possible to make that happen.

Back in May, a man named Reynaldo Castro-Tum failed to appear before an immigration judge in Philadelphia, so Judge Steven Morley used an incredibly common procedure called "administrative closure" to suspend the case. Usually, administrative closure is used on the assumption that the person didn't make it to court for logistical reasons, like the summons being sent to a wrong address, for example. But Sessions responded by assigning himself the case and issuing a decision that severely restricts the use of administrative closure, potentially adding hundreds of thousands more cases to the court system.

On top of that, Sessions sent the case back to Morley and instructed him to deport Castro-Tum if he failed to appear again. Castro-Tum never made it to court, but according to BuzzFeed News, an attorney advocating for him tried to file a motion on his behalf, arguing that Castro-Tum hadn't received enough notice to make it to the court on time. So Morley rescheduled the hearing for later in July.

Or rather, he tried to. Instead of rescheduling the hearing, Morley was removed from the case and the judge who replaced him immediately ordered Castro-Tum deported.

Immigration judges are in a unique position as far as judges go, since they essentially work at the pleasure of the Justice Department and the attorney general. So Sessions didn't do anything legally wrong by replacing Morley, but there are obviously huge ethical implications in unelected public officials having the power to swap in a judge who will interpret the laws the way that the officials want them to. And as BuzzFeed reports, the National Association of Immigration Judges is miffed: