Chief Justice Roberts smacks down Trump

18 Mar 2025, 16:31 by https://www.facebook.com/17108852506 · AlterNet

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. swears President Joe Biden into office during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony in Washington, Jan. 20, 2021. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II)

David Badash
March 18, 2025Bank

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has issued a rare, and terse, 31-word statement, seemingly in response to President Donald Trump’s rant calling call for the impeachment of Senior U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who on Saturday ordered two deportation flights to be turned around under a contested law.

The Trump administration, declaring the planes were over international waters, decided the judge’s order was not lawful, and did not order the planes to return home.

Trump lashed out Tuesday, at 9:05 AM, in an unhinged rant, calling Judge Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic,” “a troublemaker and agitator,” who “was not elected President” — before calling for his impeachment.

Chief Justice Roberts, who was appointed by President George W. Bush almost 20 years ago, issued a stern rebuke.

“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,” Roberts said in his statement, as first reported by Politico’s Kyle Cheney.

Politico is calling it “the most intense public conflict between Trump and Roberts since 2018, when the chief justice came to the defense of federal judges who’d ruled against Trump policies.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Cheney had reported that the “invective from Trump against Boasberg also is set against the message from Chief Justice Roberts, who warned against efforts by public officials to intimidate judges — including by the threat of impeachment — which could provoke ‘dangerous reactions.'”

Those remarks came from Roberts’ year-end report, during which he lamented, “Public officials certainly have a right to criticize the work of the judiciary, but they should be mindful that intemperance in their statements when it comes to judges may prompt dangerous reactions by others,” as USA Today reported at the time.

“Unfortunately,” the Chief Justice had also said, “not all actors engage in `informed criticism’ or anything remotely resembling it.”

At Trump’s State of the Union earlier this month, political observers were stunned by Trump’s remarks, caught on a hot mic, when he thanked Roberts.

Watch below or at this link:

— (@)