By Enyichukwu Enemanna
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts has criticised President Donald Trump’s incessant attacks on judges, warning that the impeachment of a judge is not the way to resolve disputes.
This is in response to a call by Trump, who also branded judges “crooked” for ruling against him. “I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had on Saturday ordered Trump’s administration to halt the removal of alleged Venezuelan gang members, which Trump has argued is authorised by an 18th-century law historically used only in wartime. This decision did not go down well with Trump, who called for the impeachment of the federal judge.
But in a rare statement, Roberts on Tuesday wrote: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
The latest warning by Roberts, a conservative who was appointed by Republican former President George W. Bush, against Trump re-echoes his earlier position in 2018, when he defended the judiciary’s independence after persistent attacks by Trump during his first term in office.
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said in a statement 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,” Roberts added.
Trump, who has appointed three of the justices to the nine-member court himself, had called a judge who ruled against his policy barring asylum for certain immigrants an “Obama judge.”
Trump on 15 March asserted his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which authorised his administration to bypass laid-down immigration processes to carry out the immediate removal of alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a criminal gang he claimed to be closely aligned with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The 18th-century law, which gives presidents the wartime authority to deport non-citizens whose primary allegiance is to a foreign power, had only been invoked three times: during the War of 1812, World War One, and most recently World War Two, when it was used to justify the mass internment of people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent.
