Donald Trump misguided on judiciary

Donald Trump may be right when he insists that in deporting illegal migrants en masse – especially criminals – across America’s southern border, he is fulfilling the mandate voters gave him last November.

Yet he is wrong to seek to ignore court rulings on the issue and demand that judges who apply the law of the land and rule against him over deportations be not just impeached but condemned as “lunatics” and “rogues”.

As Washington correspondent Joe Kelly reported on Thursday, having incurred a stern and extremely rare rebuke from US Chief Justice John Roberts over his angry invective directed at some of the country’s most senior judges, concerns are growing that the Trump administration may increasingly defy the courts as it implements its political agenda – something that could provoke a major constitutional crisis.

Chief Justice Roberts was right to intervene on Monday when, in defending the judiciary against Mr Trump’s unbridled attacks, he pointed out that “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.”

He was responding to Mr Trump’s vituperative reaction after judge James Boasberg, Chief Justice of the Federal Court in Washington DC, demanded to know why a restraining order to block the deportation of Venezuelan criminals had been ignored. In his usual moderate and understated manner, Mr Trump responded on his Truth Social website.

Mr Trump’s fury was based on Justice Boasberg’s questioning, as a senior judge, of the administration’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify deportations without the need for due process – a law not used since World War II.

Mr Trump claims, however, that the US is at war over migration, despite there being no declaration of war or resolution to that effect by the US congress.

The President’s frustration over judicial intervention impeding his deportations is understandable, but it is misguided.