If you stoop to their level than you are no better than them
Trump and his ilk are undermining the law to cleanse the US of those they deem undesirable. This guy could undermine the law to save those people.
There's a bit of a difference between those two types of people.
Additionally, If the law is so easily discarded by those in power, then maybe the law isn't worth defending at all. His activism would have been more effective as a sitting judge. To me he seems like a conservative judge who wishes conservatism still had a mask to hide behind.
And he wants person 2 to be desperate for person 1's job