The chief justice of the US Supreme Court has released a rare statement in response to President Donald Trump’s call to impeach a judge who ruled against his administration over migrant deportations.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement.
He added that the “normal appellate review process exists for that purpose”.
Trump earlier referred to US District Judge James Boasberg as a “troublemaker and agitator” after he ordered the administration to halt deportations of accused gang members to El Salvador under an 18th Century law.
Justice Roberts, a conservative jurist who wrote the majority opinion in Trump’s presidential immunity case last year, rarely issues public statements on political matters.
His statement comes as Trump escalates attacks on the federal judges who have halted or ruled against many of his early actions as president.
Trump posted on Truth Social earlier on Tuesday, in which he attacked Judge Boasberg and said he should be impeached. “HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING!” he wrote. “I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do.”
On Saturday, Judge Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to halt the deportations to El Salvador of more than 200 Venezuelans alleged by the White House to be gang members.
After lawyers told the judge that planes with deportees already had taken off, he reportedly gave a verbal order for the flights to turn back “immediately”, although that directive was not included in a written ruling published shortly thereafter.
Judge Boesberg called an additional hearing on Monday to question the Trump administration’s lawyers about why the flights had not returned to the US.
In the meantime, government lawyers said that the deportations had been paused. The Trump administration also asked in a court motion that Boasberg be removed from the case.
