AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.Judges retain a special status even after they hang up their robes. Addressing them in a 2020 article, an American Bar Association official, Marla Greenstein, wrote that “the public will forever view you as a living representative of the judicial system.”In recent months, coalitions of retired judges have drawn on their distinctive positions to file forceful briefs supporting challenges to what they said was lawless conduct by the Trump administration.Such briefs are in one sense nothing new. It is not unusual to see, for instance, a friend-of-the-court brief from a handful of retired judges concerned about a miscarriage of justice in a criminal case. But ones featuring scores of former judges taking issue with presidential initiatives seem to be on the rise.Such briefs have attracted critics, who say it is unseemly for retired judges to trade on the prestige of their former positions. But there is reason to think the recent filings have been influential.On Friday, a federal judge in Florida took a motion from 35 former federal judges very seriously. She ordered President Trump to respond to their request that she reopen a case the administration had used as a vehicle to create a $1.8 billion fund to compensate his allies and to shield him from tax audits and liabilities.The former judges said the asserted settlement of the case was the product of collusion and fraud. That argument has been made far and wide, but it may have taken on special force coming from people who, as they put it in their motion, “have dedicated their professional lives to the administration of justice.”Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT