So he’s making a ruling, even though he’s not even on the bench? Is that what you’re saying?
The Federal Judiciary has two classes of judges with respect to serving: You have actual sitting, full-time (current) judges and then you have judges of senior status (de facto retired judges). Said judge in this matter is not a “sitting judge” but a senior status one, and has been for almost 15 years (meaning they’ll take an occasional case).
While his “ruling” may be considered “legit”, I don’t think any de facto retired judges should have any authority to issue them. Eliminating senior status judges should be paramount, since they can obviously be utilized to make such egregious political rulings without any real repercussions (meaning, I don’t believe any senior status judge has been removed from the bench, only current sitting judges), short of a higher court tossing the ruling.