Roberts rejects Trump’s call to impeach judge over deportation ruling
Trump admin deports hundreds of Venezuelan migrants
The Trump administration flew hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador despite a judge’s order temporarily barring them from being deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the wartime declaration that President Donald Trump invoked Saturday.
WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has rejected calls for impeaching federal judges shortly after President Donald Trump demanded the removal of a judge who ruled against his deportation plans.
What they're saying:
"For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision," Roberts said in a rare statement. "The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."
The backstory:
In a Tuesday morning social media post, Trump described U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg as an unelected "troublemaker and agitator." Boasberg recently issued an order blocking deportation flights under wartime authorities from an 18th century law that Trump invoked to carry out his plans.
RELATED: Trump invokes Alien Enemies Act of 1798: What to know
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) greets Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr as he arrives to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Imag
"HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY," Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. "I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!"
Trump's post escalated his conflict with a judiciary that's been one of the few restraints on his administration's aggressive agenda.
Dig deeper:
He has routinely criticized judges, especially as they limit his efforts to expand presidential power and impose his sweeping agenda on the federal government. But his call for impeachment — a rare step that is usually taken only in cases of grave ethical or criminal misconduct — represents an intensifying clash between the judicial and executive branches.
RELATED: Hundreds of Venezuelans deported by Trump administration despite judge's order
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798
The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 has been used only three times before in U.S. history, all during congressionally declared wars. Trump issued a proclamation that the law was newly in effect due to what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. His administration is paying El Salvador to imprison alleged members of the gang.
Flight carrying deported migrants lands in Venezuela
A flight carrying near 200 Venezuelan migrants arrived in the South American country late Thursday night. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials transported them from Guantanamo Bay to Honduras for pickup by the Venezuelan government, which returned the migrants to Simón Bolívar International Airport, located in the capital city of Caracas.
Boasberg, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, convened a hearing on Monday to discuss what he called "possible defiance" of his order after two deportation flights continued to El Salvador despite his verbal order that they be turned around to the U.S.
The other side:
Trump administration lawyers defended their actions, saying Boasberg's written order wasn't explicit, while an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said "I think we're getting very close" to a constitutional crisis.
The Constitution gives the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a slim majority, the power to impeach a judge with a simple majority vote. But, like a presidential impeachment, any removal requires a vote from a two-thirds majority from the Senate.
The president’s latest social media post aligns him more with allies like billionaire Elon Musk, who has made similar demands.
Only one day earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "I have not heard the president talk about impeaching judges."
Big picture view:
Just 15 judges have been impeached in the nation’s history, according to the U.S. courts governing body, and just eight have been removed.
The last judicial impeachment was in 2010. G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of New Orleans was impeached on charges he accepted bribes and then lied about it. He was convicted by the Senate and removed from office in December 2010.
Calls to impeach judges have been rising as Trump’s sweeping agenda faces pushback in the courts, and at least two members of Congress have said online they plan to introduce articles of impeachment against Boasberg. House Republicans already have filed articles of impeachment against two other judges, Amir Ali and Paul Engelmayer, over rulings they’ve made in Trump-related lawsuits.
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes from Chief Justice John Roberts' public statement, President Donald Trump's social media post on Truth Social, court records related to Judge James E. Boasberg's ruling, historical data on judicial impeachments from the U.S. courts governing body, and statements from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump administration lawyers, and an American Civil Liberties Union attorney. This story was reported from Los Angeles.