• Trump escalated his ongoing fights with federal courts on Tuesday, calling for the impeachment of the judge who tried to halt deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members. 
• Many in Trump’s inner circle, including Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk, have questioned the authority of the courts in the face of Trump’s decisions. 
• Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said he doesn’t “care what the judges think.”

As legal battles surrounding President Donald Trump’s executive orders continue, some administration officials have made bold claims that the president is not bound by court orders – raising serious questions about the limits of executive power and the rule of law.

“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,” Roberts said.

The back-and-forth comes after Trump officials defied a court order halting the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members. On Saturday, Trump invoked the rarely used Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport suspected members of Tren de Aragua, a move U.S. District Judge James Boasberg challenged, ordering a 14-day pause while courts review its legality.

Boasberg said that “any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.” However, White House officials, including border czar Tom Homan, decided that since the planes had already left U.S. territory when the order was issued, they did not need to comply.

“The combination of intent to violate a court order and an actual violation is the classic definition of contempt of court, which is a crime,” David Super, a Constitutional law professor at Georgetown University Law School, said in an email. “The Administration has been violating an increasing number of court orders, and its claimed justifications have been increasingly preposterous. Whether the Administration decides to admit it is violating court orders or not, I expect individual officials will start being charged with contempt of court soon unless the Administration changes its policy on adherence to these orders.”

Here is a roundup of quotes from Trump administration officials questioning judges’ authority and the need to follow judicial orders:

•  “This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President – He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he didn’t WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY,” Trump said in a social media post on March 18. “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!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!
• “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Trump posted on social media Feb. 15 in an homage to Napoleon Bonaparte. 
• “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal,” Vance said in a social media post last month in response to federal judges pausing several of Trump’s executive orders. “If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
•  “The very worst judges – those who repeatedly flout the law – should at least be put to an impeachment vote, whether that vote succeeds or not,” Musk posted on social media Monday. 
• “We’re not stopping,” Homan said on “Fox & Friends” on March 17 after Boasberg’s order. “I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.” 

• “The Administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order,” Leavitt said in a post on social media on March 17. “The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory. The written order and the Administration’s actions do not conflict. Moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear – federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion. A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrying foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.”

“A district court judge has no authority to direct the national security operations of the executive branch. The president is operating at the apex of his authority,” Miller told reporters on Monday.