“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said.
“The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Trump, who was on the phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war in Ukraine, had not yet responded to the chief justice’s intervention.
“I don’t care what the judges think”: Trump’s border tsar Tom Homan speaks to reporters at the White House.Credit: AP
But earlier events indicate the White House believes it is on a winner by taking a hard line against alleged migrant criminals and the Democrats, activists and even judges it accuses of aiding and abetting them.
In an incendiary Fox News interview, Trump’s border tsar Tom Homan said the administration would not be deterred by court decisions. “We’re not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think, I don’t care what the left thinks – we’re coming,” he said.
Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, also lashed the judge, calling his ruling to temporarily stop the deportations “the most outrageous thing I have seen from a district court judge in my lifetime”.
Loading
The administration said it had complied with the judge’s final written orders, but drew a distinction between those and an earlier verbal order to turn around the deportation flights. In court and in public interviews, the White House argued there was a question mark over whether verbal orders counted to the same extent.
On Wednesday (AEDT), the administration ran into another judicial bulwark when a federal judge in Maryland ruled that the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development probably violated the Constitution “in multiple ways”. District Judge Theodore Chuang blocked billionaire Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency from making further cuts to the agency.
The gutting of USAID was one of the Trump administration’s early bureaucratic massacres, with nearly all employees stood down and the agency’s activities criticised and misrepresented by Trump, Musk and other figures.
Chuang also ordered the administration to restore email and computer access to all employees of USAID, including those who were placed on administrative leave.
And in another blow to the administration, a federal judge blocked enforcement Trump’s executive order banning transgender people from military service.
US District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, DC, ruled the order likely violates their constitutional rights but gave the administration time to appeal until Friday.
“The court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes,” Reyes wrote. “We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect.”
