Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public statement on Tuesday declaring that the impeachment of federal judges is “not an appropriate response” to disagreement with their rulings. His statement came shortly after President Donald Trump called for a federal judge’s impeachment.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” said Roberts, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, without naming Trump. “Normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
The statement comes just hours after Trump called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, an appointee of former President Barack Obama who temporarily blocked the administration from deporting hundreds of Venezuelan nationals allegedly linked to the violent Tren de Aragua gang and MS-13. Two deportation flights had already left U.S. airspace when the ruling was issued.
“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” the president wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Trump is no stranger to criticizing judges, though his calls for Boasberg’s impeachment marked the most aggressive pushback in his fight against court orders involving his executive agenda. The underlying dispute surrounds whether the administration lawfully relied on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to quell what it claimed was an “invasion” by members of the Venezuelan gang.
Boasberg held a hearing on Monday to discuss what he called “possible defiance” of his order after two deportation flights continued toward Central America despite his verbal order stopping them. The hearing came just after the Justice Department asked an appeals court to remove Boasberg from the case.
Roberts’s comments follow other judicial impeachment calls from Trump allies for judges who have ruled against Trump’s agenda through temporary orders and, in some cases, nationwide injunctions.
Although constitutional checks and balances permit Congress to submit and vote on articles of impeachment for federal judges, the process is rare, difficult, and usually inadvisable for a multitude of reasons. In practice, most judicial impeachments have involved corruption, abuse of office, or unethical behavior rather than legal rulings.
A judge can be impeached in the House by a simple majority, though it requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate.
TRUMP WANTS IMPEACHMENT OF JUDGE AFTER WHITE HOUSE SUGGESTED OTHERWISE
It is also incredibly difficult to see a sitting judge or Supreme Court justice impeached, as only 15 have been impeached in the nation’s history, resulting in only eight removals. The last judicial impeachment was in 2010, involving G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of New Orleans. He was impeached on charges he accepted bribes and then lied about it, convicted in the Senate, and removed from office in December 2010.
Under former President Joe Biden, several liberal lawmakers and activists also led unsuccessful efforts calling for Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court, such as Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, to be impeached over alleged ethical lapses.
