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PolitiFact FL: Trump called for a judge’s impeachment. It’s unlikely to happen

WLRN Public Media | By Amy Sherman | PolitiFact
Published March 19, 2025 at 5:52 PM EDT
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office on March 7, 2025.
Pool via AP
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters in the Oval Office on March 7, 2025.

President Donald Trump called for the impeachment of a judge who ordered a temporary stop to deportation flights of Venezuelans under the use of a 1798 law.

WLRN has partnered with PolitiFact to fact-check Florida politicians. The Pulitzer Prize-winning team seeks to present the true facts, unaffected by agenda or biases.

President Donald Trump called for the impeachment of a judge who ordered a halt to deportation flights of Venezuelans to El Salvador, but it’s highly improbable the judge will be ousted.

Trump didn’t call James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, by name in a March 18 Truth Social post, instead calling him a "radical left lunatic." Trump wrote that when he was elected, he received an "overwhelming mandate" and his immigration platform "may have been the number one reason" that he won the presidency.

"I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do," Trump wrote. "This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!"

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public statement in response: "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."

Legal experts echoed Roberts.

READ MORE: US immigration flights set off terrified international searches for missing loved ones

"Impeaching judges based on their decisions has been frowned upon, even in Congress, since the early 1800s," said Michael Gerhardt, University of North Carolina law professor and author of "Impeachment: What Everyone Needs to Know." "No judge has ever been impeached and convicted on that basis. History is against these threats."

Trump is using a 1798 law to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally who he says are members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang. The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the organizations that sued to stop the deportation flights, questioned whether the people who were deported are gang members and said it hadn’t been proven in a hearing. Boasberg ordered a temporary stop to the flights.

Here’s what to know about judicial impeachment history and why the constitutional process makes Trump’s wish unlikely.

What is the process for impeaching a federal judge?

The U.S. Constitution includes a two-step process to remove federal officials, including judges, who have committed wrongdoing.

Under the U.S. Constitution's Article I, the House of Representatives has sole impeachment power; the House can bring articles of impeachment and adopt them by a single majority vote.

After the House agrees to impeach a federal official, the Senate conducts a trial to determine whether the person should be removed from office, which requires a two-thirds Senate vote.

Even if all Republicans agreed to impeach — a big if — the current party division of the Republican-led Senate, 53-47, makes that hurdle essentially impossible.

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, introduced a resolution March 18 to impeach Boasberg. The resolution says Boasberg "has abused the powers of his judicial authority, having engaged in actions that prioritize political gain over the duty of impartiality owed to the public and litigants." It does not explain what the "political gain" for the judge would be in this case.

Elon Musk, who is leading Trump’s cost-cutting efforts, posted on X, the social media platform he owns, in favor of holding an impeachment vote for judges who "repeatedly flout the law." Other Republicans have filed resolutions in recent weeks seeking to impeach other judges who ordered the administration to restore health agencies webpages, limited DOGE’s efforts to access Treasury Department data or directed the administration to pay $2 billion to foreign aid partners.

What can a judge be impeached for?

In one section, the Constitution says the grounds for impeaching civil officers are treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. Another section says federal judges "hold their Offices during good behaviour."

"One argument posits that these clauses should be read in conjunction, meaning that judges can be impeached and removed from office if they fail to exhibit good behavior or if they are guilty of ‘treason, bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,’" the Congressional Research Service wrote in 2023.

Impeachment experts said the Constitution’s framers did not envision judges being impeached because politicians disagreed with their rulings.

The idea is that judges can be impeached for crimes, such as bribery, said James D. Robenalt, attorney with Thompson Hine LLP and creator of a continuing legal education class on Watergate.

"It’s a pretty tough standard and it is meant to be that way," Robenalt said.

Allan J. Lichtman, American University political scientist and author of "The Case for Impeachment," said, "The normal process is not for the executive to call for impeaching a judge who issues a ruling adverse to its interests. The appropriate process is to appeal the ruling to a Circuit Court and perhaps ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court."

The last explicitly political impeachment of a federal judge occurred during the first term of President Thomas Jefferson, Lichtman said.

Jefferson influenced his allies in the House to impeach Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, who belonged to an opposing political party, in 1804. But the Senate acquitted Chase.

"Since then, the House has impeached judges for criminal activity, dereliction of duty, corruption, and abuse of power," Lichtman said.

How often are judges impeached?

Judges have rarely been impeached stretching back centuries. Eight federal judges have been convicted.

The Senate last convicted a judge in 2010. G. Thomas Porteous Jr., a U.S. District court judge in Louisiana, was impeached on charges of accepting bribes and making false statements under penalty of perjury. All 96 senators voted in favor of at least one of the articles of impeachment.

In 2009, the House voted to impeach Samuel B. Kent, a Texas judge, on charges of sexual assault, obstructing and impeding an official proceeding, and making false and misleading statements. He resigned before a Senate trial.

Three judges were impeached and found guilty in the 1980s: Walter Nixon of Mississippi; Harry Claiborne of Nevada; and Alcee Hastings of Florida, who went on to serve in Congress.

The 1980 Judicial Conduct and Disability Act established a process within the judicial branch for responding to complaints about judges. Those investigation’s findings can result in the Judicial Conference of the United States, a group of judges presided over by the Chief Justice, informing the House that the impeachment of a judge may be warranted.

This was the process for recent judicial impeachments, the Congressional Research Service found in 2024.

Why did Trump call for a judge’s impeachment?

On March 15, Trump issued a proclamation invoking use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to claim an "invasion" of the Tren de Aragua gang from Venezuela. The law had been used only three times in U.S. history, all during wartime.

The Alien Enemies Act lets the president detain and deport people from a "hostile nation or government" without a hearing when the U.S. is either at war with that country, or that country has "perpetrated, attempted, or threatened" an invasion or raid legally called a "predatory incursion" against the U.S.

The next day, Boasberg ordered the Trump administration not to use that law to deport anyone in its custody for 14 days.

"You shall inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States," Boasberg said.

Soon after Boasberg’s order, planes carrying 261 people landed in El Salvador, and 101 of them were Venezuelans deported under the Alien Enemies Act, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird and Staff Writer Maria Ramirez Uribe contributed to this article. 

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Politics PolitiFact FloridaDonald Trump
Amy Sherman | PolitiFact
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