Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts pushes back on Trump's judicial impeachment calls

Jacqueline Thomsen, Bloomberg News on Mar 18, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts spoke out against President Donald Trump’s call for the impeachment of a judge who ruled against his effort to swiftly deport alleged Venezuelan gang members.

Trump didn’t refer to Chief U.S. District Judge Jeb Boasberg in Washington by name in a social media post on Tuesday, calling him a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge.”

The president’s attack on Boasberg escalated his administration’s battle against the judiciary, coming hours before Justice Department attorneys are supposed to detail the administration’s compliance with the judge’s March 15 order not to carry out deportations based on Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.

In a rare statement Tuesday, Roberts said, “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.” Roberts added, “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

The Justice Department has also sought to have the case reassigned from Boasberg, making the request in a Monday letter to a federal appeals court in Washington.

Trump had previously stayed away from calls to impeach judges, even as some House Republicans have filed articles of impeachment against judges who have ruled against the administration’s sweeping early actions. Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, said in a social media post Monday that he will move to impeach Boasberg this week.

The Trump administration faced a noon Eastern time deadline to answer questions from Boasberg on complying with his temporary restraining order. The judge also said that, if the government won’t answer his questions on the particulars of deportation flights that left after his order, it “must support such position, including with classified authorities if necessary.”

A pair of prominent federal judges last week spoke out against the use of impeachment against judges, with one noting that other tools like appeals are an option.

“Impeachment is not — shouldn’t be — a short circuiting of that process, and so it is concerning if impeachment is used in a way that is designed to do just that,” Judge Richard Sullivan of the Second Circuit, who chairs a judiciary committee on judicial security, told reporters.

Judges have come under fire as courts are flooded with challenges to Trump administration actions. Other judges have faced articles of impeachment for rulings against Elon Musk’s efficiency team from accessing Treasury Department systems and the removal of public health data, as well as allowing the release of foreign aid payments from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who chairs the House Judiciary subcommittee on the courts, on Tuesday backed up Trump’s attack. “The Resistance now wears robes,” he said in a social media post.

Trump v. Judges

Trump, whose reputation as a fierce litigator predates his ascension to the White House, has often attacked judges. He took issue with the courts after his 2020 election loss, going after those who didn’t rule in favor of overturning the results.

Trump’s return to the White House means he is facing a judiciary he reshaped during his first term. But the lawsuits filed against his administration so far have accumulated in circuits where there are a majority of liberal appointees, including the First, Fourth, and DC Circuits.

During March 14 remarks he gave at the Justice Department, he defended one of his appointees, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in the Southern District of Florida. She had dismissed charges against Trump over the retention of classified documents after he left office, finding the special counsel behind the prosecution was improperly appointed.

Trump during the speech attacked lawyers who have been critical of Cannon and some of the Supreme Court justices.

“They’re humans, and they don’t want to be accused of many, many things, including gross incompetence,” Trump said. “They don’t like it and they don’t want it. There’s not much they can do about it, you know. They’re in a position, they can’t really fight back really very well. And so what they do is sometimes they get weak. I would say a majority, maybe, of the times.”

“That’s why I’m so impressed with Judge Cannon in Florida, how strong she was, how she held up,” he added.

Chief Judge

Boasberg was appointed by Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2011. He is a former federal prosecutor who was previously appointed by George W. Bush to the local DC Superior court.

Boasberg has served as chief judge in Washington since 2023, and presided over some grand jury proceedings related to criminal charges filed against Trump.

He presided over the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2020 and 2021, considering government requests for secret surveillance warrants.

The former Yale basketball player has a genial but straightforward approach on the bench. He’s also known as a voracious reader who occasionally makes literary references in his rulings, and is a strong enforcer of a local court rule against “excessive footnotes.”

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With assistance from Suzanne Monyak