US Chief Justice Roberts rebukes Trump's attack on judge

WASHINGTON: US Chief Justice John Roberts rebuked President Donald Trump on Tuesday for urging the impeachment of a federal judge, laying bare tensions between the country's chief executive and the judiciary as Trump's sweeping assertions of power run into judicial roadblocks.

In a rare statement, Roberts wrote: "For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision."

He wrote the correct response was to file an appeal.

Roberts' statement followed Trump's call in a social media post on Tuesday for the impeachment of a federal judge. Washington-based US District Judge James Boasberg ordered the administration on Saturday to halt the removal of alleged Venezuelan gang members, which Trump has argued is authorised by an 18th-century law historically used only in wartime.

Tensions have been rising in the eight weeks since Trump returned to the White House with the president and his allies publicly criticising courts for blocking aspects of Trump’s agenda.

The combative atmosphere has raised concerns among some legal experts that the administration might openly defy a court order, possibly sparking a constitutional crisis.

At a hearing Judge Boasberg had ordered a halt to all deportations carried out under the Alien Enemies Act, including turning around any planes already in transit. Two planes carrying hundreds of the alleged gang members were already in the air and were not returned, prompting accusations that Trump's administration had defied the court order.

The Trump administration wrote that two flights had departed before the judge's written order was issued and that spoken orders the judge had issued in court before the written notice hit the docket were not enforceable.

"I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!" Trump wrote on Tuesday. Trump also called the judge a "Radical Left Lunatic."

US Marshals have warned judges of heightened threats in recent weeks as administration allies have ramped up efforts to discredit judges who stand in the way of White House actions.

On social media, billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump ally, and Republican lawmakers have described judges as threats to democracy. "The only way to restore rule of the people in America is to impeach judges," Musk wrote in one post.

Impeachments of judges rare

Eight judges have been impeached, convicted and removed in US history, the last in 2010, and some legal scholars have raised doubts about the possibility of any impeachment such as the one imagined by Trump succeeding.

Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, said it is inevitable that judges will issue rulings that disappoint or anger politicians.

"A lone erroneous ruling, even on an issue of national significance, has never been understood to meet the threshold for impeaching a federal judge, and there is little question that federal judges are not going to be removed on that basis," Adler said.

Retired federal judge Jeremy Fogel, who heads the Berkeley Judicial Institute at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, said he agreed with Roberts' statement.

"I think that realistically the threats have no chance of succeeding, but they contribute to a toxic atmosphere that makes the already difficult work of federal judges more difficult," Fogel said.

Trump's post marked the first time during his second term as president that he has called for a judge's impeachment, a move that garnered support from his Republican allies in Congress.

Just hours after Trump's post, Republican lawmaker Brandon Gill of Texas said on X that he had introduced articles of impeachment against Judge Boasberg in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

To remove a judge from office, the House must pass articles of impeachment by a simple majority vote and then the Senate must vote by at least a two-thirds majority to convict the judge. Republicans control both chambers of Congress but do not have a two-thirds majority in the Senate.

'We do not have Obama judges'

The statement by Roberts, a conservative who was appointed by Republican then-President George W. Bush, echoes one from 2018, when Roberts defended the judiciary's independence after persistent attacks by Trump during his first term in office.

"We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges," Roberts said in a statement at the time.

"What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for," Roberts added.

Trump, who has appointed three of the justices to the nine-member court himself, had called a judge who ruled against his policy barring asylum for certain immigrants an "Obama judge."

A narrow majority of Supreme Court justices that included Roberts brushed Trump back in a pair of procedural rulings issued since Trump reentered the White House on January 20.

On February 21, the court declined to let Trump immediately fire the head of a federal watchdog agency after a judge's order temporarily blocked the dismissal. On March 5, the court declined to let Trump's administration withhold payment to foreign aid organisations for work they already performed for the government.

The court meanwhile is weighing Trump's March 13 request asking it to intervene in his bid to curb automatic US birthright citizenship.