Donald Trump’s allies have been calling for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg after he blocked the deportation of migrants under the Alien Enemies Act. On Tuesday, the push to get rid of Boasberg became more serious when the president himself weighed in and agreed.
“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” Trump posted on social media.
Supreme Court Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement afterward, rebuking Trump and his allies for going after judges who rule against the administration.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
Indeed, Congress impeaches not to retaliate against judges who have issued rulings they disagree with, but instead to remove judges who have committed crimes or been alleged to have taken part in bribery or other behaviors that would preclude them from doing their duties on the bench.
A look at the history and process of impeaching judges:
Which judges are House Republicans threatening to impeach?
Boasberg is not the only judge that House Republicans are targeting with impeachment. Here is the full list of impeachment resolutions introduced so far this session, all of which were in response to rulings that Trump allies have disagreed with:
- U.S. District Judge James Boasberg: Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, announced Tuesday that he had introduced an impeachment resolution against the judge, saying on social media that he was “guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and should be removed from office.”
- U.S. District Judge Hon. Paul A. Engelmayer: There are two different impeachment resolutions against Engelmayer. Reps. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., and Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., each has his own resolution. Both have been referred to the Judiciary Committee.
- U.S. District Judge John Bates: He is facing an impeachment resolution introduced by Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., which was referred to the Judiciary Committee.
- U.S. District Judge Amir Ali: He is also facing an impeachment resolution introduced by Ogles. That one was also referred to the Judiciary Committee.
Judge James Boasberg is in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump and his allies for ordering the administration to stop its deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post via Getty Images file
How do impeachments happen in the House?
Any member can introduce a resolution to impeach a federal judge.
Resolutions calling for impeachment are referred to the Judiciary Committee. The committee can start its own investigation or wait for the full House to vote on authorizing an investigation.
A member could try to fast-track an impeachment by raising it as privileged on the floor, though this has failed in recent years.
The Judiciary Committee typically will hold hearings and conduct an investigation before marking up the articles of impeachment and voting on them to send to the full House.
If approved by a majority of the Judiciary Committee, the impeachment resolution then goes to the Rules Committee before making its way to the full House floor for debate and a vote. It takes only a simple majority vote in the House to successfully impeach an official.
Wouldn’t there need to be a Senate impeachment trial?
Yes, if the House were to vote by simple majority to impeach a federal judge, the articles would be transmitted to the Senate and a trial would be triggered.
What the trial would look like could depend on what Republican leadership wants.
Some trials are contained just on the Senate floor, like the two impeachment trials of Trump. That could take days or weeks, depending on the extent of the trial. A weekslong investigation or trial would likely be handled off the floor.
Other trials, particularly in the last time the Senate held a trial for a federal judge, are referred to a impeachment committee to gather evidence, interview witnesses and make a recommendation to the full Senate, which would then vote on whether to convict.
Why impeachment wouldn’t work in the Senate
If the House were to vote to impeach a federal judge, it would require 2/3 of the senators present to vote for conviction, and there is no chance that would happen if the judges were impeached for overturning a policy decision made by President Trump.
If all 100 senators attended the trial and voted, 67 senators would have to vote to convict, and with the Senate breakdown as 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats, there is no world in which 14 Senate Democrats would join Republicans to convict.
Many of those Democrats, after all, voted to put some of these judges in place specifically so they could be a check on Trump’s power.
A Senate trial would also eat up valuable floor time during Trump’s first year in office, where the Republican majority is trying to focus on confirming nominees, passing appropriations bills and considering budget reconciliation.
Is impeachment of a federal judge something that has happened before?
Yes. In fact, 15 federal judges have been impeached by the House. Eight were then convicted by the Senate, four were acquitted by the Senate and three resigned before the Senate could vote on whether to convict or acquit.
Impeachments of judges, however, have largely been done because of corruption or crimes committed by the judges while they were serving on the bench. (A full list of the people who have been impeached by the House is here.)
The constitutional definition of impeachment allows for the removal of federal judges for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” which has been interpreted as someone “who either abuse their power or engage in conduct that warrants their dismissal from an office of public trust.”
But while treason and bribery are fairly well-defined, high crimes and misdemeanors is open to interpretation.
Per this annotated interpretation of the Constitution: “The type of behavior that qualifies as impeachable conduct, and the circumstances in which impeachment is an appropriate remedy for such actions, are thus determined by, among other things, competing political interests, changing institutional relationships among the three branches of government, and legislators’ interaction with and accountability to the public.”
When’s the last time this happened?
The last time Congress impeached a federal judge was G. Thomas Porteous in 2010, for charges of accepting bribes and making false statements under penalty of perjury.
The House unanimously passed four articles of impeachment, and after a Senate committee was designated to analyze the evidence and take testimony, the Senate subsequently voted to convict Porteous on all four articles. The chamber also voted to disqualify him from holding any office in the future, which the it can do after it votes to convict.
The impeachment of Porteous included a number of familiar names: Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was the lead impeachment manager as a member of the House, and then-Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., was the chair of the Senate committee designated to investigate the articles.
