Newsman: Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement Tuesday rebuking President Donald Trump and his allies for calling to impeach judges who have ruled against the administration.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said in the statement.
Roberts’ statement is not the first time he has publicly clashed with Trump. In 2018, he criticized Trump for singling out an “Obama judge” who had ruled against the administration.
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them,” Roberts said.
President Trump himself raised the stakes Tuesday, when he called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg after he blocked the deportation of Venezuelan migrants.
“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” Trump posted.
Trump allies have called for various judges to be impeached for blocking administration policies in the first months of his second term.
Soon after Chief Justice Roberts issued his statement, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, wrote on X that he had introduced articles of impeachment against Boasberg.
He claimed Boasberg had committed an impeachable offense by issuing a temporary restraining order against the administration over its novel invocation of a wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act to deport certain illegal immigrants.
While a handful of federal judges have been removed from office in the past, it has been because of gross misconduct in office, such as taking bribes, not as a result of individual decisions they have made.
Federal judges have frequently intervened on Trump’s agenda since he took office again in January and implemented a set of aggressive policies that raised several novel legal issues. That has angered the administration and the broader MAGA base, leading to increasingly frequent calls for impeachment and raising concerns within the judiciary.
Last week, federal judges raised the alarm about security concerns and urged public officials to use caution when they criticize court rulings.
In the meantime, Roberts has on several occasions played key roles in various Trump dramas. He also presided over the first of two Trump impeachment trials in the Senate, each of which led to acquittals, and in January, he handled Trump’s swearing-in as president for the second time.
