SCOTUS chief justice responds to Trump call for district judge impeachment

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts pushed back on President Donald Trump’s call to impeach a district judge after issuing a ruling against Trump’s administration. Impeachment has never been allowed as a response when disagreeing with a court ruling, Roberts said in a statement reported by the Associated Press. The appellate review process was constructed just for this purpose, the statement added. The statement came after Trump called for U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg’s impeachment in a Tuesday post, characterizing the Obama appointee as a lunatic and troublemaker.

Why was Trump calling for Boasberg’s impeachment? Boasberg on Saturday issued a two-week stop to all deportations taking place under the president’s invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act earlier that morning. The administration began flying hundreds of suspected terrorists to El Salvador around the time Boasberg issued the order for any planes in the air to turn around. The Trump administration is doing what the people want and getting rid of the violent criminals illegally in the country, Trump wrote Tuesday.

The judge questioned Trump’s attorneys at a Monday night hearing about the timeline of the deportation flights and whether they took off before or after his order. The federal attorneys refused to answer a number of Boasberg’s questions during the hearing, saying they were not authorized to disclose the details in question, according to reporting by The Hill. Boasberg then accused the attorneys of stonewalling and gave the administration until Wednesday to submit a sealed document with the requested details about the deportation flights.

Dig deeper: Read my previous report for more background on the deportations and the lawsuit that prompted Boasberg’s order.