Mini-Post: A Tongue-Lashing

Trump & Company got a reprimand by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court!

Rebuking Talk From Trump, Roberts Calls Impeaching Judges Over Rulings Improper

The chief justice rarely issues public statements. This one was reminiscent of another in 2018 defending judicial independence after the president criticized a different judge’s ruling.

The New York Time

By Adam Liptak

March 18, 2025

Just hours after President Trump called for the impeachment of a judge who sought to pause the removal of more than 200 migrants to El Salvador, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. issued a rare public statement.

“For more than two centuries,” the chief justice said, “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.”

Mr. Trump had called the judge, James E. Boasberg, a “Radical Left Lunatic” in a social media post and said he should be impeached. On Saturday, Judge Boasberg ordered the administration to return planes carrying migrants said to be members of a Venezuelan gang to the United States while he considered whether their removal was lawful. The planes did not turn around.

[...]

His statement instead made a modest point. But it came in the face of rising calls for impeachment not just by Mr. Trump but also by his network of supporters, which has complained that judges have blocked a series of the president’s initial policy moves.

The correct reaction to a ruling that a party disagrees with, the chief justice wrote, is to file an appeal.

This is very important! Because it gives a hint of how the Chief Justice Roberts is thinking about all the stuff Trump is pulling.