Uh, they would have been shot.
What if they just resigned?
They would have been found and shot.
Would that have been enough?
Nope.
A resignation would only mean that a new judge would be appointed who would comply with the order.
Peace in our time!
Instead of just folding, there are times we must stand against evil knowing that there would be consequences. Otherwise , should Dietrich Bonhoeffer have kept silent ? Let’s go further back , way further back. Should Saint Stephen have remained silent to avoid stoning?
That’s true, resigning Nazi judges would have been arrested, maybe killed. And those guys in the Alamo could have run away.
Or as Churchill put it,
“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without blood shed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”