Chief Justice Roberts says impeaching judges "not an appropriate response" to disagreement, rebuking Trump
Washington — Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement Tuesday defending federal judges who have issued decisions against the Trump administration, saying that "impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement" with a court's decision.
"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 the statement distributed by the Supreme Court's public information office. "The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."
Roberts' statement comes after President Trump attacked a federal district judge on Truth Social and called for his impeachment. The judge, James Boasberg, temporarily blocked the Trump administration on Saturday from using the wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act to detain and deport noncitizens.
Boasberg had issued an oral order from the bench requiring planes carrying 261 people that were on their way to Central America to return to the U.S. The Trump administration had alleged that 137 of the people on board the planes had ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and were removed from the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act. Despite Boasberg's order, two planes landed in El Salvador, sparking allegations that the Trump administration had defied a court order.
"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, he didn't WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN'T WIN ANYTHING!" Mr. Trump wrote in his post.
The president added that Boasberg and "many of the Crooked Judges' I am forced to appear before" should be "IMPEACHED!!!"
Mr. Trump's targeting of Boasberg, who was appointed to the U.S. district court in Washington, D.C., by President Barack Obama, is an escalation in the ongoing attacks on federal judges who have been overseeing the dozens of challenges to the president's policies. Some of those judges have ordered the Trump administration to put its plans on hold while legal proceedings move forward, sparking condemnations from the president's allies and threats of impeachment. The Justice Department has appealed many of those rulings and sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court in three court fights so far.
Federal judges are appointed for life and can only be removed from the bench if they are impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. Just 15 judges have been impeached in U.S. history, most recently in 2010. Eight of those 15 have been convicted and removed from office.
Elon Musk, a senior adviser to the president, has taken to social media repeatedly to call on the judges to be impeached, claiming they are "evil."
In a post last month on X, the social media company he owns, Musk claimed the country is witnessing "an attempted coup of American democracy by radical left activists posing as judges." In another post, he wrote that there "need to be some repercussions above zero for judges who make truly terrible decisions."
Republicans in the House have also introduced impeachment resolutions against at least three judges because of rulings they dislike, which were issued in the early stages of legal challenges to Mr. Trump's policies.
In response to the attacks on members of the judiciary, two Republican-appointed judges warned last week that they strike at judicial independence.
"Our system of government is premised on three independent branches and a judiciary that can function independently," Judge Richard Sullivan, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, said during a call with reporters hosted by the Judicial Conference. "That's what makes it work, and so it's crucial that people understand that."
Judge Jeffrey Sutton, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, said it's a "shame" to see judges attacked simply for doing their jobs.
"Threats to judges are threats to judicial independence. They've been around for a long time. There's lots of different mechanisms. Threats of impeachment — this is not the first time this has happened," he said. "One thing worth keeping in mind is if we dilute the standards for impeachment, that's not just a problem for judges, that's a problem for all three branches of government."
Roberts has spoken about the importance of judicial independence before, namely in his year-end report issued to close out 2024. He highlighted four areas that he said threatened the independence of judges: violence, intimidation, disinformation and threats to defy lawfully entered judgments.
Roberts is the presiding officer of the Judicial Conference, the policymaking body for the judiciary. Such statements from the chief justice are rare, but it is not the first time Roberts has pushed back against Mr. Trump's comments.
In 2018, after the president complained about a federal judge who ruled against an asylum policy during his first term and referred to him as an "Obama judge," Roberts said the U.S. doesn't 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."
