Twenty-Three Thousand Cases Left Unanswered

What's happening

A ProPublica investigation found that the Department of Justice quietly closed more than 23,000 criminal cases in the first six months of President Trump's second term, the largest mass closure on record. In February 2025 alone, nearly 11,000 cases were declined, nearly double the previous single-month record. The abandoned investigations spanned terrorism, white-collar crime, union corruption, healthcare fraud, and drug offenses. Simultaneously, the DOJ prosecuted 32,000 new immigration cases, nearly triple the rate under Biden. Among the closed files: a Virginia nursing home investigation involving patient abuse, fraud probes into New Jersey labor unions, and a cryptocurrency investor fraud case. Retired assistant U.S. attorney Grady O'Malley, a Trump supporter, said of union corruption cases: "No one is assigned, and the unions have every reason to believe no one is looking."

What the text says

Isaiah 10:1-21Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;2to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

Isaiah's target is not the absence of law. It is the presence of law wielded selectively. The Hebrew word choq, translated "decrees," refers to enacted statutes, formal legal instruments. The prophet is addressing a system that has the machinery of justice and chooses to direct it toward some and away from others. The widows and orphans Isaiah names are not victims of lawlessness. They are victims of a legal system that has reorganized its priorities.

In its original context, Isaiah addressed the ruling class of Judah during a period of military expansion and economic consolidation. The government was functioning. Courts were open. Laws were on the books. The prophetic accusation was precise: justice was being rationed according to political convenience, not according to the needs of the vulnerable.

The reflection

A nursing home under investigation for patient abuse is not a partisan issue. Union workers being defrauded is not a partisan issue. A cryptocurrency scheme stealing from investors is not a partisan issue. When 23,000 cases close in silence, the question the text raises is who bears the cost of justice redirected. Isaiah did not object to governance. He objected to governance that chose which victims deserved its attention. The files are closed. The harm they documented is not.