U.S. Supreme Court chief justice rejects Trump’s call for impeaching judge who ruled against deportation plans

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts speaks at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, in Lincoln, Neb., Sept. 19, 2014. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — In an extraordinary display of conflict between the executive and judiciary branches, Chief Justice John Roberts rejected calls for impeaching judges shortly after President Donald Trump demanded the removal of one who ruled against his deportation plans.

The rebuke from the Supreme Court’s leader demonstrated how controversy over recent flights of Venezuelan immigrants has inflamed tensions over the judiciary’s role, with a legal case challenging Trump’s actions now threatening to spiral into a clash of constitutional powers.

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

The rare statement came just hours after a social media post from Trump, who described U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg as an unelected “troublemaker and agitator.” Boasberg had issued an order blocking deportation flights that Trump was carrying out by invoking wartime authorities from an 18th century law.

“HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. “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!!!”

Although Trump has routinely criticized judges, especially as they limit his efforts to expand presidential power, his latest post escalated his conflict with a judiciary that’s been one of the few restraints on his aggressive agenda. Impeachment is a rare step that is usually taken only in cases of grave ethical or criminal misconduct.

The relationship between Roberts and Trump has shifted through the years. Roberts emphasized judicial independence during Trump’s first term, taking issue with the president’s description of a judge who rejected his migrant asylum policy as an “Obama judge” in 2018.

Before Trump was sworn in for his second term, Roberts warned against threats to the judiciary and called for even unpopular court decisions to be respected.

The chief justice also had a prominent role in a major ruling last year that said presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution. The decision helped Trump avoid one of his criminal trials before the election that returned him to the White House.

Trump greeted Roberts warmly earlier this month, thanking him and saying “I won’t forget” as justices attended his address to a joint session of Congress. The president said later he was thanking Roberts for swearing him into office.

The latest dispute involving the judiciary comes after a court challenged of his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. It has been used only three times before in U.S. history, all during congressionally declared wars. Trump issued a proclamation that the law was newly in effect due to what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. His administration is paying El Salvador to imprison alleged members of the gang.

Boasberg, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, convened a hearing on Monday to discuss what he called “possible defiance” of his order after two deportation flights continued to El Salvador despite his verbal order that they be turned around to the U.S.

Trump administration lawyers defended their actions, saying Boasberg’s written order wasn’t explicit, while an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said “I think we’re getting very close” to a constitutional crisis.

The Justice Department is also pushing in court to have Boasberg removed from the case.

The Constitution gives the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a slim majority, the power to impeach a judge with a simple majority vote. But, like a presidential impeachment, any removal requires a vote from a two-thirds majority from the Senate.

The president’s latest social media post aligns him more with allies like billionaire Elon Musk, who has made similar demands.

“What we are seeing is an attempt by one branch of government to intimidate another branch from performing its constitutional duty. It is a direct threat to judicial independence,” Marin Levy, a Duke University School of Law professor who specializes in the federal courts, said in an email.

Only one day earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “I have not heard the president talk about impeaching judges.”

Just 15 judges have been impeached in the nation’s history, according to the U.S. courts governing body, and just eight have been removed.

The last judicial impeachment was in 2010. G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of New Orleans was impeached on charges he accepted bribes and then lied about it. He was convicted by the Senate and removed from office in December 2010.

Calls to impeach judges have been rising as Trump’s sweeping agenda faces pushback in the courts, and at least two members of Congress have said online they plan to introduce articles of impeachment against Boasberg. House Republicans already have filed articles of impeachment against two other judges, Amir Ali and Paul Engelmayer, over rulings they’ve made in Trump-related lawsuits.

Leavitt is one of three administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First- and Fifth-amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America..

Chris Megerian, Lindsay Whitehurst And Mark Sherman, The Associated Press