Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer responded to congressional calls to impeach judges who issue rulings that congressional members disagree with, amid controversial orders issued against the Trump administration in recent weeks.
“What do you think the losing side thinks of the judge or the judge’s decision? Naturally, they think it’s wrong,” he told CNN. “And judges are wrong sometimes. So, what does that person do? He appeals, he asks for a special writ in some cases, but he gets others to review the decision.”
On March 15, Trump issued a proclamation that he is invoking the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and speeding up deportations of members of the Venezuelan transnational gang Tren de Aragua, a foreign terrorist organization. Boasberg quickly blocked Trump from using the law, which typically has been used by presidents during times of war.
“You decide what you think is correct in the law. Period,” Breyer also said about a Judge’s decision. “You don’t want a judge to be looking over his shoulder to public opinion.”
The U.S. legal system won’t work if impeachment efforts are initiated against judges over their decisions, Breyer said, citing a statement issued earlier this week by Chief Justice John Roberts in response to calls for impeachment of Boasberg.
“But, you know, he’s trying to explain to the people of this country how the legal system works and how it doesn’t work,” Breyer said. “It doesn’t work by impeaching a judge because you don’t like his decision.”
Instead, Trump and other officials should “move on in the legal process” and appeal the judge’s decision, Breyer said.
The former associate justice also said that he agreed with a memo sent by Roberts earlier this week. Roberts’s statement was helpful, he said, because most of the American public is not familiar with the judiciary process.
“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,” Roberts said in a statement earlier this week, without mentioning Trump by name, amid calls for the judge’s impeachment.
“He’s trying to explain to the people of this country how the legal system works and how it doesn’t work,” Breyer said, referring to the memo. “It doesn’t work by impeaching a judge because you don’t like his decision.”
He also remarked: “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose. And now, you know, 299 million of our—or more than that, 229 million of our 230 million people? How many do we have? Something like that? Yeah, something like that—are not lawyers. They’re not judges. They don’t know. And this is an informative and educational statement.”
Earlier this week, Trump wrote on social media that Boasberg did not win the popular vote or win all seven swing states—as he, himself, did as the winner of the 2024 presidential election—before calling for the judge’s impeachment.
Meanwhile, Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, have said in media interviews and in court that they believe Boasberg has overstepped his authority by blocking deportation flights, telling the administration to turn the flights around, and later demanding that the DOJ respond to questions about the flights by his deadline.
Breyer stepped down from the Supreme Court in 2022, allowing for then-President Joe Biden to nominate current Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
