Retired Supreme Court Justice Warns Legal System ‘Doesn’t Work’ If You Start ‘Impeaching Judges’ Amid Trump’s Attacks
Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer warned that the legal system “doesn’t work” if Congress starts “impeaching judges” because they “don’t like” decisions they reach amid President Donald Trump expression of support for judicial impeachments.
On Tuesday, Trump took to social media to call for the impeachment of Judge James Boasberg, who temporarily ordered the Trump administration to stop deporting migrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
The tirade prompted a two-sentence statement from Chief Justice John Roberts: “For more than two centuries, 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.”
During an appearance on CNN’s The Situation Room Wednesday with host Wolf Blitzer, Breyer, who served as an associate justice on the Supreme Court for almost three decades, applauded the statement as “informative and educational.”
Roberts that’s right and this is his press release. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose. And now, you know, 299 million of our or more than that, 229 million of our 230 million people. How many do we have? Something like that? Yeah, something like that. Are not lawyers. They’re not judges. They don’t know. And this is an informative and educational statement.
“So you think it was appropriate?” Blitzer pressed.
Maintaining his support of Roberts, Breyer replied: “I do, because they don’t know. I mean, when you have a district court judge or you have a court of appeals judge, somebody’s going to win and somebody is going to lose. What do you think the losing side thinks of the judge or the judge’s decision? Naturally, they think it’s wrong. Of course, that happens every day of the week across the entire country. And judges are wrong sometimes. So what does that person do? He appeals. He asks for a special writ in some cases, but he gets others to review the decision.”
“It was always considered in this country that it [Supreme Court Justice Samuel] Chase who they tried to impeach in 1805 – no, you can’t!” he added.
The host repeated back Breyer’s line of argument that a losing party can “appeal to a higher court” and “move on in the legal process.”
“So what does this say about President Trump that he’s calling for the impeachment of a federal judge?” Blitzer pushed.
Resisting the question, Breyer replied: “Well, the statement doesn’t mention the president.”
The host kept up the pressure: “It doesn’t mention but we know who the statement was referring to. The timing is clearly obvious.”
“No, you can ask the person who made the statement,” Breyer smiled, continuing: “But, you know, he’s trying to explain to the people of this country how the legal system works and how it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work by impeaching a judge because you don’t like his decision.”
He added: “And by the way, you may be right. The other side may be wrong. There are two sides. Take it to an appeal and move on legally in the process.”
Watch above via CNN.
