CNN
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Two senior members of the federal judiciary on Tuesday pushed back on Republican threats to impeach judges who rule against President Donald Trump, asserting that such a move would “short circuit” the appeals process.
“It is a concern,” said US Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan, whom Trump nominated to the federal appeals court in New York during his first term.
“Impeachment shouldn’t be a short circuit” of the appeals process, Sullivan continued. “It is concerning if impeachment is used in a way designed to do just that.”
The remarks came as Elon Musk has openly called for removing judges who rule against the Trump administration. Responding to that suggestion, several House Republicans have introduced impeachment resolutions against some judges.
Impeaching judges is exceedingly rare, and those resolutions are unlikely to advance.
Sullivan, who sits on the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, and US Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton, the chief judge of the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals, briefed reporters Tuesday during a biannual meeting of the governing arm of the judiciary.
Sutton, who was nominated by President George W. Bush, said he feared that attempting to remove judges might “dilute the standards for impeachment.”
“It’s a shame to see people attacking people for simply doing their level best to do their jobs,” Sutton said.
Federal courts have been navigating amped-up rhetoric from the president and his allies at a time when they are also weighing dozens of Trump’s policies and decisions to fire the leadership at independent agencies. The Supreme Court has already been asked to wade into two of those cases on its emergency docket, and a flood of other litigation is almost certainly inbound.
While raising concerns about both impeachment threats and judicial security, both Sullivan and Sutton steered clear of questions about Trump’s potential influence on that issue.
“This is not something that has suddenly appeared on the scene,” Sutton said. “Whether it’s polarization, whether it’s the internet — who knows?”
Both judges cited a report in December from Chief Justice John Roberts, who lamented that “public officials,” whom he also did not name, had “regrettably” attempted to intimidate judges by “suggesting political bias in the judge’s adverse rulings without a credible basis for such allegations.” Those attempts, Roberts warned, are “inappropriate and should be vigorously opposed.”
