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 The rule of law returns to Massachusetts
 BOSTON — Include Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons as among those who cheered the decision by U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling to charge a local judge with obstruction and perjury after she allegedly helped a criminal illegal alien avoid a third deportation.

“Finally, we have someone committed to putting the safety of our citizens ahead of identity politics,” Lyons said about Lelling.

In his announcement Thursday, Lelling said Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph’s indictment “is about the rule of law.”

“The allegations in today’s indictment involve obstruction by a sitting judge, that is intentional interference with the enforcement of federal law, and that is a crime,” Lelling said. “We cannot pick and choose the federal laws we follow, or use our personal views to justify violating the law.”

Democrats, including Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, appeared shaken by Lelling’s comments.

“Today’s indictment is a radical and politically-motivated attack on our state and the independence of our courts,” Healey said in a statement.

Lyons offered a simple question for Healey.

“A Democrat judge gets caught red-handed aiding and abetting an illegal immigrant who is already in court to face drug-dealing charges, perjures herself, and Democrat Maura Healey’s first reaction is to call it a politically-motivated attack,” Lyons said. “Who does the attorney general honestly think she works for?

“Does the state’s top prosecutor think she answers to the Democratic Party or to the law-abiding taxpayers she is assigned to protect?”

Healey was not the only Democrat to pile on Lelling for following the letter of the law.

U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III said Lelling’s decision “threatens the safety of our community” while a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Ed Markey called it “an unwarranted intrusion by the Trump Justice Department into Massachusetts state affairs.”

Their comments did not surprise Lyons.

“It’s finally time for people in positions of power to recognize there are not two sets of laws,” Lyons said. “U.S. District Attorney Lelling understands this, and it is time for the Radical Democrats to understand the rule of law matters.

“There are not separate laws for illegal immigrants and Massachusetts citizens. There is only one.”