Beef with the Chief

Kings don’t have much patience for negative feedback from other branches of government. And so it is with Trump who “called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg after he blocked the deportation of Venezuelan migrants.” In a social media post, Trump (like Musk and others running the country) called for getting rid of judges who uphold the law. “This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President – He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES … This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” This kind of quackery would be easy to dismiss if it weren’t coming from the president of the United States who is leading a transparent, concerted effort to ignore, defy, and damage the judicial branch. And I’m not the only one worried. “Chief Justice John Roberts pushed back on President Donald Trump’s escalating rhetoric against the federal judiciary on Tuesday in a highly unusual statement that appeared to be aimed at the president’s call to impeach judges who rule against him. ‘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.” It’s a positive sign that the Chief Justice would give voice to these concerns. The big question is whether—after giving Trump so many court wins (including the bewildering immunity ruling)—it’s too late to tame the beast.