Judge Raouf Abdel Rahman ejected Saddam's former intelligence chief and half-brother, Barzan al-Tikriti, after he called the trial “a daughter of a whore” and refused to keep quiet.
The defence team walked out in protest.
Their action was met by an unsympathetic new judge, "If you leave then you can't come back for future sessions," Judge Abdel Rahman said.
When the judge then tried to impose court-appointed lawyers on Saddam, the former Iraqi leader turned to them, and shaking his finger, said, "I reject you. If you stay here you are evil."
"I want to leave," Saddam, dressed in a dark suit and a white collared shirt, told the judge.
"Then leave," the Judge replied.
"It is a tragedy. I led you for 35 years. How can you lead me out of court? Shame on you," Saddam said.
He then left the courtroom, and was followed by two others, his former vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, and Awad Hamed al-Bander, a former chief judge in his Revolutionary Court.
Saddam's lawyers have threatened to boycott future sessions unless the chief judge apologised.
"In view of the biased policies adopted by the court's chief judge to push for a quick conviction, we are demanding that the trial be moved outside Iraq to put an end to this farce," Saddam’s chief counsel, Khalil al Dulaimi, said.
New style judge
The dramatic scenes were played out as new Chief Judge Abdel Rahman tried to stamp his authority on the court.
"This court is not a place for political speeches," said Judge Abdel Rahman, a 64-year-old Kurd whose hometown is Halabja, where 5,000 people died in a gas attack during an offensive by Saddam's forces in 1988.
Judge Abdel Rahman is under pressure to deal firmly with Saddam after the government accused his predecessor, who resigned two weeks ago, of being too lenient.
Saddam's courtroom tirades have dominated proceedings.
New witnesses speak
Judge Abdel-Rahman was determined not to allow the walkouts to derail proceedings, calling three new witnesses, two women and a man.
They testified from behind a curtain as other witnesses have done to conceal their identity.
Saddam and seven co-accused are charged with killing 148 men from the Shi'ite town of Dujail after a bid to assassinate him there in 1982.