In rare rebuke, US Chief Justice John Roberts slaps down Donald Trump for ‘Obama judge’ remark
- ‘We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges,’ said Chief Justice John Roberts, after Trump’s partisan attack on a jurist who ruled against his asylum policy
- Legal experts say the remarks against a sitting president are a break with precedent that could serve as a ‘warning shot’ at Trump
The chief justice of the United States and the president of the United States engaged in an extraordinary war of words Wednesday over the independence of the federal judiciary, with Chief Justice John Roberts issuing a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump’s criticism of an “Obama judge” who ruled against the administration.
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said in a statement released by the court’s public information office. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”
Roberts’ Thanksgiving eve statement ended: “That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
The president responded quickly from his holiday home in Florida, via Twitter:
“Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges’, and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an ‘independent judiciary’ …”
Trump was referring to the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which covers much of the West Coast – although the ruling he was criticising came from a district judge in California, not the circuit court. Trump feels aggrieved by decisions of the appeals court, which he tweeted Wednesday has become “a terrible, costly and dangerous disgrace.”