The Judge

I think in the book the judge acknowledges that Blaisedell isn't a bad man but that he's put himself in a position outside the law by taking the job of town marshal in a town that doesn't legally exist (i.e., hadn't received its town patent from the state or territorial government). The judge believes no man is outside the law. Interestingly, in the book, when the US army invades Warlock to suppress a miner's strike (a sub-plot jettisoned from the movie script)--an action of dubious legality in itself--the judge stands with the miners and is jailed protesting the army's actions; showing that the judge, believing in the law, is not in favor of blind submission to authority when it becomes tyrannical.