Prominent attorney and Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Tuesday that Chief Justice John Roberts was mistaken in suggesting that impeachment is “never” an “appropriate” remedy for judges over disagreements with their rulings. His comments came after Roberts issued a statement pushing back on President Donald Trump, asserting that centuries of precedent establish that judges should not be impeached solely over disputes related to their decisions.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts wrote in the statement shared by the Supreme Court’s public information office, according to CBS News. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
While appearing on American Agenda, Dershowitz acknowledged that appellate remedies likely exist in most cases but argued that impeachment could still be warranted in certain circumstances. “Impeachment is proper — Chief Justice [Roberts] is wrong when he says it’s never proper for a decision — after the Dred Scott decision, for example, which declared black people not to be eligible for citizenship, impeachment would have been a proper remedy,” Dershowitz said.
“There have been a number of cases in our history where impeachment would have been a proper remedy, but not generally. Generally, appellate remedies are available, particularly in cases of this kind,” he said regarding a federal judge’s decision to bar the Trump administration from deporting violent Venezuelan gang members.
Roberts’ statement came after Trump on Tuesday called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg of the District of Columbia. Boasberg, an Obama appointee, issued an injunction on Saturday ordering the administration to turn around two planes carrying members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang to El Salvador, though that particular detail was not in his written order. Trump had invoked the Alien Enemies Act to expedite the deportation of foreign gang members from the United States.
On January 20, Trump signed an executive order designating cartels and criminal gangs, including Tren de Aragua (TdA), as foreign terrorist organizations. The Alien Enemies Act grants U.S. presidents broad authority to deport individuals from enemy nations without following standard procedures, according to the BBC. The planes bound for El Salvador did not turn back, and on Saturday, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele confirmed that his country had received 238 Tren de Aragua (TdA) members and 23 MS-13 members. Administration officials stated that by the time the court order was issued, the planes were already in international airspace.
“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday. “WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”