Almost two years after President Donald Trump began a continuing campaign of criticism of federal judges who rule against him, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., apparently has had enough, ending his silence on Wednesday afternoon. In a gesture that appeared to be unprecedented in Roberts’ career as the head of the federal courts, he spoke out vigorously in defense of judicial independence. He left no doubt he was taking on Mr. Trump.
The latest verbal attack by the President on the judiciary came earlier in the day Wednesday when he denounced an “Obama judge” in California for ruling against the President’s action in limiting immigrants’ right to seek asylum from persecution in their home countries.
At the Court, an Associated Press reporter, Mark Sherman, put in a request for a response from the Chief Justice. Surprisingly, given Roberts’ customary reticence to engage in political feuds, the Chief Justice responded.
This was his statement, in full: “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should be thankful for.”
The President, unwilling to yield to Roberts in the exchange, published on Twitter this retort: “Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges,’ and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an ‘independent judiciary,’ but if it is why….” (The tweet ended there.)
The President has been regularly a critic of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has a reputation of being the most liberal tribunal in the federal court system. The President seems to include trial judges in the Circuit as having the same inclination, at least when they have decided an issue against the Administration.
In another tweet on Wednesday, he called for an investigation of the Ninth Circuit Court and suggested that it was “too big” and needed to be broken-up – an idea that has been circulating for years, but seldom advances.
Although the Senate has been rushing to confirm many of President Trump’s nominees to federal judgeships, most of them are new enough not to have made decisions in high-profile cases involving important presidential priorities.
But one of the judges placed on the bench by this Administration, Judge Timothy J. Kelly of Washington, D.C., did rule against the White House last week when it revoked the press pass of a broadcast journalist whose conduct in encounters with the President has drawn the Chief Executive’s wrath.
Judge Kelly was spared the President’s criticism.
Lyle Denniston has been writing about the Supreme Court since 1958. His work has appeared here since mid-2011.
