Dear Chief Justice Roberts, Do Your Job
I have written and spoken frequently about the problem of District Court Judges exceeding their separation of powers boundaries.
A month ago I posted this video which has regained traction.
In one of the cases, the four conserative Justices issued a blistering dissent over the Court’s refusal to put an end to it.
“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars? The answer to that question should be an emphatic “No,” but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned….Unfortunately, a majority has now undone that stay. As a result, the Government must apparently pay the $2 billion posthaste—not because the law requires it, but simply because a District Judge so ordered. As the Nation’s highest court, we have a duty to ensure that the power entrusted to federal judges by the Constitution is not abused. Today, the Court fails to carry out that responsibility….Today, the Court makes a most unfortunate misstep that rewards an act of judicial hubris and imposes a $2 billion penalty on American taxpayers. The District Court has made plain its frustration with the Government, and respondents raise serious concerns about nonpayment for completed work. But the relief ordered is, quite simply, too extreme a response. A federal court has many tools to address a party’s supposed nonfeasance. Self-aggrandizement of its jurisdiction is not one of them. I would chart a different path than the Court does today, so I must respectfully dissent.”
Now it is at an apex with calls to impeach the district court judge who issued the order that planes already in flight (and possibly in international airspace) carrying Venezuelan gang members out of the country turn around mid-flight. Trump joined those calls in his usual subtle manner:
That prompted a response from Chief Justice John Roberts to let the normal appellate process work:
“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.”
Here is my HOT TAKE:
Transcript auto-generated, may contain transcription errors
We are facing an increasing crisis where the federal judiciary at the district court level has been exercising powers that normally should be exercised by the executive branch.I’ve been talking about this almost since the start of the Trump administration 2.0. The Democrats organized a blitzkrieg of lawsuits against the administration intended to disrupt and to freeze the executive branch, and unfortunately, to a certain degree, it has been working because district court judges have been stepping out of their separation of powers lane.We had a case involving the restoration of an officer to the administration who Donald Trump fired. He’s now finally gone, but only after he was put back in place by a district court judge.We had a district court judge at 1:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning rule that Treasury officials could not have access to Treasury systems for payments, literally decapitating the Treasury Department. It was walked back by another judge, but it happened.We had district courts rule that the people auditing the systems from DOGE could not have access to them.And just a couple of days ago, we had a district court judge who ordered that planes in flight carrying designated members of terrorist organizations being flown out of the country pursuant to the presidential powers had to turn around midflight, not even knowing whether they had the fuel to do so.This has given rise to an uprising and calls for impeachment of various district court judges. I haven’t advocated that, but today Chief Justice Roberts issued a statement speaking out against the impeachment proceedings and talking about letting the normal appellate process run.The problem is the normal appellate process has not been running. It has not been working. The district court judges have been deliberately framing their relief, their relief which will not ultimately hold up on appellate review, as temporary restraining orders so that there’s difficulty of review.Twice the government went to the Supreme Court asking them to step in and stop this, and unfortunately the Supreme Court refused to do so.Justice Alito issued a statement on behalf of the four conservatives in one of the cases where the judge, the district court judge, had ordered $2 billion in government contracts to be paid within 36 hours, not even knowing what the contracts were, and despite the government’s statement they wanted to review them to make sure there wasn’t fraud there. And the court—the three liberals plus Chief Justice Roberts plus Justice Barrett—refused to hear the case, and Justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh issued a powerful statement that the court has not met its obligation—meaning the Supreme Court has not met its obligation—to make sure that the district courts stay within their constitutional bounds.So it’s not just Republicans who want impeachment claiming it. It’s not just people upset with the decisions.So Chief Justice Roberts, if you want the normal appellate process to work, you have to make it work. You have to do your job. The Supreme Court needs to do its job, and the appeals courts need to do their jobs.Yes, ideally we wouldn’t even be talking about impeachment. It’s a measure of last resort born of frustration that the appellate process has not been working. So don’t lecture to the public who’s concerned. You need to lecture and you need to take action as the Supreme Court to rein in the district courts who have stepped out of their separation of powers boundaries and who have created this crisis.
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