Chief Justice John Roberts. Reuters.

Dear Commons Community,

Chief Justice John Roberts decried calls from President Trump and his supporters to impeach judges who have ruled against administration policies, saying that the courts should be left to resolve legal disputes through the traditional system of litigation. As reported by The Wall Street Journal.

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

To be sure, judicial impeachments have been floated for political purposes before.

In 1970, House Minority Leader Gerald Ford (R., Mich.), the future president, called for impeaching Justice William O. Douglas, a pugnacious liberal who recently had published a book, “Points of Rebellion,” sympathizing with the era’s radical movements. Last year, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) filed impeachment articles against Justice Clarence Thomas, the current court’s most conservative member whose undisclosed acceptance of lavish gifts from wealthy patrons prompted critics to question his ethics.

Impeachment threats against district judges over preliminary orders issued at the outset of litigation are all but unheard of—let alone from the president.

To remove a judge, the House would have to approve articles of impeachment and the Senate, following a trial, would need to convict by a two-thirds vote. While the odds of that are slim, Roberts and other judges have warned that incendiary rhetoric from political leaders can lead to intimidation of judges and even threats to their and their families’ safety.

Trump loves to intimidate because he is such a cowardly bully.

Tony

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