(CNN) — Chief Justice John Roberts pushed back on President Donald Trump’s escalating rhetoric against the federal judiciary on Tuesday in a highly unusual statement that appeared to be aimed at the president’s call to impeach judges who rule against him.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a statement released by the Supreme Court. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Roberts’ statement did not mention Trump by name, but it came hours after the president stepped up his attacks on federal judges by specifically calling for US District Judge James Boasberg, who has temporarily blocked the deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members, to be impeached.
Several Trump allies, including Elon Musk, have been calling for weeks to impeach judges amid a slew of preliminary rulings against the Trump administration. Trump’s rhetoric opposing the judiciary has been far more aggressive than during his first term and the administration’s approach has raised fears of a constitutional crisis.
Republican members of Congress, responding to the president, have moved to impeach federal judges, who serve lifetime appointments. A Texas Republican, Rep. Brandon Gill, said on social media Tuesday that he introduced articles of impeachment against Boasberg.
“This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President – He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Uneasy relationship with conservatives
Roberts has had an uneasy relationship with some political conservatives, who have never forgiven him for upholding Obamacare in 2012 – even though he has repeatedly sided with conservatives on guns, abortion, religion, affirmative action and other major culture war issues.
Conservatives have a 6-3 advantage on the high court and Trump himself nominated three of the current justices. The court has frequently sided with him in major cases, most notably the decision last year to grant former presidents wide immunity from criminal prosecution for their official actions. But in a series of emergency orders since Trump’s return to the White House, the court has preliminarily ruled against him.
At the same time, Trump appeared especially eager to woo Roberts during his joint address to Congress earlier this month.
“Thank you again. I won’t forget it,” Trump could be heard telling Roberts on the House floor. The president later claimed on social media that he was thanking Roberts for swearing him at this inauguration.
Gabe Roth, executive director of the watchdog group Fix the Court, said that Roberts made “an important point” with his statement but said ”it’s a little rich coming from the guy that, by giving Donald Trump near-total immunity in a major decision last year, helped usher in the present era of lawlessness.”
Impeachment threats prompt reaction
The chief justice and the other members of the Supreme Court have largely remained silent as Trump and his allies have ramped up their attacks on the judiciary amid a slew of preliminary rulings that haven’t gone their way. Most of those cases are being appealed and will likely wind their way up the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court in coming weeks.
Though Roberts did not mention the case specifically, his statement came as lawyers for the administration and the American Civil Liberties Union are sparring before a federal judge in Washington, DC, over the sudden removal of Venezuelan nationals.
The Justice Department’s handling of the case has raised questions about whether the White House defied a court order to turn around any planes carrying Venezuelans immediately deported under the controversial Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg’s order wasn’t a final decision but rather a temporary move designed to give the court a few days to consider the arguments in the case. But the White House has framed the judge as attempting to usurp the power of the presidency.
When Boasberg held a hearing on Monday seeking answers about what specific steps the administration had taken after his order, DOJ lawyers initially declined to respond because, they said, they were not authorized to do so citing national security concerns. In a sworn declaration made public Tuesday, immigration officials said that the Venezuelan nationals removed after the judge’s order were subject to removal orders under other laws, not the Alien Enemies Act.
Trump is attempting to invoke a 1798 law that allows the federal government to expedite deportations of citizens of a “hostile nation” in times of war or when an enemy attempts an “invasion or predatory incursion” into the United States. Opponents have noted the US is not formally at war and has questioned whether the administration’s definition of “invasion” meets the law’s requirements.
That’s the question that courts – including the Supreme Court – will likely eventually be asked to sort out.
Roberts’ statement Tuesday was similar to a rebuke the chief justice issued in 2018, when he responded to Trump’s remarks by saying that, “we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.”
At the time, a judge from the Northern District of California had issued a temporary order blocking the first Trump administration from barring migrants who cross into the US illegally from seeking asylum.
“It’s a disgrace when every case gets filed in the 9th Circuit,” Trump said as part of a lengthy criticism of the court. “That’s not law. Every case in the 9th Circuit we get beaten and then we end up having to go to the Supreme Court like the travel ban and we won. Every case, no matter where it is, they file is practically, for all intents and purposes, they file it in what’s called the 9th Circuit. This was an Obama judge. I’ll tell you what, it’s not going to happen like this anymore.”
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts, who was nominated to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush, said 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.”
CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.
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