Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee to the Supreme Court, issued a rebuke of President Donald Trump this week after Trump called for the impeachment of Washington, DC, District Court Judge James Boasberg.
The Trump administration ignored a verbal order from Boasberg that instructed a plane loaded with known members of violent criminal gangs, confirmed by the El Salvadoran government, to turn around mid-flight and return to the U.S. The administration ignored the order because the plane had already entered international air space, administration officials said.
Representative Brandon Gill (R-Texas) on Tuesday introduced articles of impeachment against Boasberg, a Barack Obama appointee.
“He is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and should be removed from office,” Gill wrote on X.
In a lengthy post on Truth Social in which no capital letters were spared, Trump never mentioned Boasberg by name, though it was hardly difficult to determine who the President was discussing.
Trump referenced a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator …”
Trump proceeded to list his election night achievements, then continued: “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.”
Roberts quickly countered. “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” the chief justice said in a statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
But does the appellate process adequately address all disagreement? Jordan, appearing on American Family Radio Thursday, doesn’t think so.
Boasberg’s history
Jordan noted to show host Jenna Ellis that Boasberg revealed his political leanings as head of the FISA Court during Trump’s first term.
“In his role as the head of the FISA Court [Boasberg] made a number of divisive decisions, including a slap on the wrist for a member of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team, the appointment of officials who had defended the FBI’s actions during the Russiagate saga, the renewal of the FBI’s FISA powers, and more,” wrote Jerry Dunleavy, the chief investigative correspondent, with Just The News.
“Judge Boasberg was part of that. When you couple all that, put all that together, it sure looks like … this particular judge is behaving in a purely political fashion out to get President Trump. That’s something I think is worthy of examination by the House Judiciary Committee,” Jordan said.
Jordan stopped short of promising a full-scale impeachment hearing for his committee.
“We're going to get the facts, get the evidence, and we're going to look at all this. Then we'll make a decision on what's the appropriate course of action,” he said.
“I agree with the chief justice that the typical remedy for bad judicial decisions is the appellate courts, but this one in particular, Judge Boasberg, looks to me like it’s political, and so we’re going to give it a little more examination from the committee standpoint,” Jordan added.
The Ohio Republican also contends Trump is following the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
"It talks about predatory incursion – [and] that's certainly what the Tren de Aragua gang members are about," Jordan said. "[Trump] has the Constitution on his side, he has the statute on his side, [and] he's following the statute."
Most constitutional protections are afforded to citizens and non-citizens alike. One of those is the Fifth Amendment, which states that “no person” can be denied due process.
Whether the framers intended that “person” extend to those who entered the country illegally, who have been designated as members of a Foreign Terrorist Organization, may be up for debate. The White House contends that deportations can occur simply because of a person’s immigration status whether he or she has committed further crimes.
Regardless, the question of due process has already been addressed for many on that deportation flight, Jordan explained.
“The only due process some of them are entitled to is if they're making an asylum claim – and my understanding is a lot of the people who were on this flight, bad guys, part of this gang, here illegally, a lot of them did have that adjudication process, and [the government] said, ‘Sorry, you can't stay, you don't qualify under our asylum laws,’” he said.
That scenario may not have applied to every individual on the contested flight, “but I know for many of them that was the case,” Jordan shared.
Eighty-four percent of the time immigrants who claim asylum to enter the U.S. don’t qualify under the law, the congressman pointed out.
How impeachment happens
Impeachment is a detailed process. House Republicans alone can draft articles of impeachment, as Gill has presented, and advance them to the Senate with a simple majority vote.
But removing a sitting judge would require a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate where Republicans have a simple majority with 53 seats.
The system does allow Boasberg to be found to have violated judiciary ethics. Roberts would be very involved in that process.
“The judicial branch would be the ultimate arbiter. That would be the Supreme Court and, in particular, the chief justice of the Supreme Court,” Jordan noted.
