WASHINGTON: Donald Trump\u2019s rumbling conflict with the judiciary burst into open confrontation on Tuesday as Supreme Court Justice John Roberts issued a rare public rebuke of a US president over his call for the impeachment of a federal judge.
\n\u201cFor more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,\u201d Roberts said in a brief statement.
\n\u201cThe normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.\u201d
\nRoberts\u2019s extraordinary rebuke of the president came after Trump called for the impeachment of District Judge James Boasberg, who ordered the suspension over the weekend of deportation flights of alleged illegal migrants.
\nThe White House has been sharply critical of district courts that have blocked some of the president\u2019s executive actions.
\nHowever, this was the first time Trump has personally called for a judge\u2019s impeachment since he took office in January, saying that Boasberg was a \u201cRadical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama.\u201d
\n\u201cThis judge, like many of the Crooked Judges\u2019 I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!\u201d he said in a Truth Social post earlier Tuesday.
\nHours later, Brandon Gill, a Republican lawmaker from Texas, announced on social media platform X that he had introduced articles of impeachment in the House against Boasberg, whom he described as a \u201cradical activist judge.\u201d
\nFollowing Roberts\u2019s rare statement, Trump said in another post: \u201cIf a President doesn\u2019t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!\u201d
\nFederal judges are nominated by the president for life and can only be removed by being impeached by the House of Representatives for \u201chigh crimes or misdemeanors\u201d and convicted by the Senate.
\nImpeachment of federal judges is exceedingly rare and the last time a judge was removed by Congress was in 2010.
\nTrump, the first convicted felon to serve in the White House, has a history of attacking the judges who presided over his civil and criminal cases.
\nCarl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, described Roberts\u2019s intervention as \u201cextremely rare\u201d and recalled that the chief justice made similar remarks after Trump criticized the rulings of federal judges during his first term.
\nRoberts was compelled to respond at the time by saying the federal bench \u201cdoes not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges, or Clinton judges,\u201d Tobias said.
\nBoasberg ordered a suspension on Saturday to the deportation flights taking alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador, where they were put in prison.
\nThe White House invoked little-used wartime legislation known as the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as legal justification for the move.
\nHowever, no evidence has been made public to confirm the deportees were gang members or even in the country illegally.
\nBoasberg held a hearing on Monday on whether the White House had deliberately ignored his orders by carrying out the flights.
\nJustice Department lawyers told the judge the more than 200 Venezuelan migrants had already left the United States when he issued a written order barring their departure.
\nBoasberg no longer had jurisdiction once the planes had left US airspace, they claimed.
\nThe Justice Department had previously filed a motion with an appeals court seeking to have the judge removed from the case for allegedly interfering with the president\u2019s lawful \u201cconduct of foreign policy.\u201d
\nTrump, in his Truth Social post earlier Tuesday, said Boasberg \u201cwas not elected President.\u201d
\n\u201cI WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,\u201d he wrote.
\nThe Yale-educated Boasberg, 62, was appointed to the DC Superior Court by president George W. Bush, a Republican, and later named a district court judge by Obama, a Democrat.
\nThe White House has repeatedly lashed out following court rulings it disagrees with, such as the rejection of Trump\u2019s attempt to end birthright citizenship.
\nTrump\u2019s bid to amass power in the executive has increasingly raised fears he will openly defy the judiciary, triggering a constitutional crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump\u2019s rumbling conflict with the judiciary burst into open confrontation on Tuesday as Supreme Court Justice John Roberts issued a rare public rebuke of a US president over his call for the impeachment of a federal judge. \u201cFor more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-467919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n