WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday suggested Republicans won’t be impeaching judges anytime soon, contrary to demands from President Donald Trump and other members of their party.
Trump and his allies have called for the impeachment of a federal judge who tried to halt some of the administration’s most controversial deportations, and several House Republicans have drafted articles of impeachment.
Johnson said he wouldn’t rule out impeaching a judge, but also that it’s only happened 15 times in U.S. history and it would be hard to win a vote in the House.
“It’s a very high burden, and frankly, as far as high crimes and misdemeanors, I mean, the last federal judge who was impeached I think was caught like, you know, taking cash in an envelope,” Johnson said. “It’s like, it’s got to be a pretty brazen offense, a real open crime that everybody could agree to.”
After Trump called for the impeachment of James Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) filed impeachment articles. Boasberg’s high crimes and misdemeanors? Second-guessing Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan nationals to a prison in El Salvador. Gill’s articles have 22 Republican co-sponsors.
“We will not stand by as radical activist Judge James Boasberg tramples on the Constitution out of political spite for the president,” Gill said in a release.
Several other federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have questioned Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, which allows the president to remove “alien enemies” during times of war. Last week, a U.S. district judge in Texas said the Trump administration acted unlawfully since there’s been no actual war, no invasion of the United States.
While Johnson pooh-poohed impeachment, he has sought to support the president’s criticism of federal judges, who have issued dozens of temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions halting Trump’s policies. Last month the House passed legislation by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) that would limit the ability of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions.
“I think that is a very common sense standard, and one that would kind of get back to the original intent and eliminate the ability of just one activist [judge] to just stop everything,” Johnson said.