Chief justice pushes back against calls to impeach judges who rule against Trump
Quote:
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 a statement.
Trump allies have called for various judges to be impeached for blocking administration policies in the first months of his second term.
But Trump himself raised the stakes on 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.
Soon after Roberts issued his statement, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, wrote in a post 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 war-time 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.
Just last week, federal judges raised the alarm about security concerns and urged public officials to use caution when criticizing court rulings.
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