The first serious rebuke of Donald Trump’s return to the White House has come from a close ally of the MAGA POTUS.
Keeping it short and sweet Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts told Trump and his minions to hold their horses when it comes to attacking judges and calling for impeachment over decisions they don’t like.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” the SCOTUS boss said in a statement released today after Trump and other Republicans threatened U.S. District Judge James Boasberg over his order this weekend temporarily blocking deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.
“The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Chief Justice Roberts added without ever naming Trump but leaving no one confused as to whom he was addressing.
Roberts’ circumspect remarks come after Trump typically blew his stack against Judge Boasberg earlier on Tuesday on social media. “This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President,” Trump digitally bellowed, before going into a factually challenged rehashing of his 2024 election. “This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!”
Rants about impeaching judges have become common among the GOP as Trump 2.0 and their Project 2025 agenda blasts through domestic and international norms the turbulent past months.
Though very chummy with Trump at the president’s March 4 partisan and chaotic speech to Congress and a big supporter of increasing Executive power, Roberts has chided POTUS before. Back in 2018, as Trump went after a Barack Obama judge who thwarted his will, the Chief Justice stated: “We do not 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.”
Trump ranted against Boasberg this morning after a suddenly called combative Monday evening hearing in the judge’s DC courtroom. The chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia wanted DOJ lawyers to clarify if flights to El Salvador carrying over 200 deported alleged Venezuelan gang members took off after he ruled the planes had to be turned around. The Justice Department answers were muddled, with nuances over if the flights were over international waters and if they were in the air before the judge issued his verbal order and after he issued a written order.
The written order did not include language about the flights and their passengers returning to the USA. Leaning on that, the DOJ claimed it never violated Judge Boasberg’s order, which clearly infuriated the judicial official.
Annoyed at the DOJ stonewalling on Monday, Judge Boasberg demanded the department provide him with more information by this afternoon on when planes took off and why his order was not heeded.
In a filing today, the DOJ flipped him the bird.
“The Government maintains that there is no justification to order the provision of additional information, and that doing so would be inappropriate,” the Justice Department exclaimed in a three-page submission
“Moreover, given that the Government’s motion for a stay remains pending before the D.C. Circuit, the Government should not be required to disclose sensitive information bearing on national security and foreign relations until that motion is resolved, especially given that this information is neither material nor time sensitive,” the DOJ added. “If, however, the Court nevertheless orders the Government to provide additional details, the Court should do so through an in camera and ex parte declaration, in order to protect sensitive information bearing on foreign relations.”
Now Judge Boasberg has said that he wants more information under seal.
Chief Justice Roberts had no public statement on that.