U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has officially entered the fray of politics by reacting to a sitting American president’s post calling for the impeachment of a federal judge.

On Saturday (15 March) U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg verbally ordered two deportation flights — carrying 238 immigrants, asylum seekers, and alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador — to be turned around and returned to the United States for due process.

"Oopsie, too late,” the president of El Salvador replied, of the passengers whose exact whereabouts at the time of the order remains "woefully insufficient." With a capacity of 40,000 inmates, The Center for Terrorism Confinement CECOT is the largest prison in the Americas, an ominous symbol of Latin America’s crackdown on domestic crime.

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

“I just introduced Articles of Impeachment against radical activist Judge James Boasberg,” Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) quickly posted. “He is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and should be removed from office.” In an unprecedented move, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts released the following statement:

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.

It’s the Constitution, for clarity, which grants the U.S. Congress the authority to declare war. Likewise, the House of Representatives can impeach an Article III judge. The trial unfolds in the Senate, and a conviction requires a two-thirds majority vote.

The Justice Department replied to Boesberg’s order calling them “grave encroachments on core aspects of absolute and unreviewable executive branch authority relating to national security, foreign relations and foreign policy.” The filing continues:

The underlying premise of these orders ... is that the Judicial Branch is superior to the Executive Branch, particularly on non-legal matters involving foreign affairs and national security. The Government disagrees. The two branches are co-equal, and the Court’s continued intrusions into the prerogatives of the Executive Branch, especially on a non-legal and factually irrelevant matter, should end.

The Supreme Court spokesperson who entangled Roberts in the political arena offered this explanation: “Roberts issued the statement in response to reporters’ inquiries about Trump’s endorsement of growing calls from his supporters for impeachment of judges who impede Trump’s agenda.”

Though Supreme Court justices are rarely goaded into making political statements to the press, or prevailed upon to school the nation in the Separation of Powers, Roberts’ remarks are a stern reminder from Marbury v. Madison — the landmark decision establishing judicial review — that the High Court is the government’s official watch dog—for now.

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 has been used only three times before in U.S. history, all during congressionally declared wars. Trump issued a proclamation that the law was newly in effect due to what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Declared a terrorist organization on 20 January, the Trump administration is paying El Salvador to imprison the alleged terrorists at CECOT.

Only 15 judges have been impeached in the nation’s history, eight have been removed. The last judicial impeachment came in 2010 when G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of New Orleans was charged with bribery and removed. To date, House Republicans have filed articles of impeachment against two other judges — Amir Ali and Paul Engelmayer — over rulings they’ve made in Trump-related lawsuits.

“What we are seeing is an attempt by one branch of government to intimidate another branch from performing its constitutional duty. It is a direct threat to judicial independence,” says Marin Levy, a Duke University School of Law professor who specializes in the federal courts.

Nor is this a garden variety ethics matter. This is a chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. whose issued a 14-day restraining order on an American president for invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 during peacetime; bypassing removal proceedings; rebuffing due process; and deporting immigrants, asylum seekers, and alleged members of Tren de Aragua.

Moreover, Boesberg served as the chief judge over the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court (2020-2025). A court of five Article III judges, selected by the Chief Justice of the United States, whose job is to determine whether aliens (non-citizens) should be deported from the US on the grounds that they are terrorists.

The Alien and Sedition Acts were a set of four laws enacted in 1798 that applied restrictions to immigration and speech in the United States. The Naturalization Act increased the requirements to seek citizenship; Alien Friends Act allowed the president to imprison and deport non-citizens; and the Sedition Act criminalized false and malicious statements about the federal government. However, only the Alien Enemies Act remains in effect. Alien Enemies (50 U.S.C. Chapter 3) grants the president powers to detain and deport non-citizens during times of war, invasion, or predatory incursion with limited due process.

In a recent Justice Department speech, the U.S. president took aim at journalists, prosecutors, and judges who he believes whipped up and weaponized the judicial system over the past 4 years. “As we begin a proud new chapter in the chronicles of American justice, we’re turning the page on four long years of corruption, weaponization, and surrender to violent criminals.”

As the nation reaches an inflection point, Trump closed his remarks by citing John Locke’s hollowed phrase chiseled in limestone at the Justice Department. “Where law ends, tyranny begins,” Trump said. “And I see that.”

Perhaps less clear to Trump is the quotation’s context. During the Enlightenment Era, Locke argued that government exists to serve it’s people (not the other way around) and explained when Europe’s monarchies should be challenged. “A magistrate, acting without authority, may be opposed, as any other man, who by force invades the right of another.” Locke was the principal influencer of the American Revolution.

He handed the idea off to Montesquieu (a judge) whose 18th century bestseller “The Spirit of Law” became the American founder's de facto workbook for the U.S. Constitution. Montesquieu's "tripartite system" was designed as three independent branches of government. The legislative branch would create law; the executive branch would enforce law; and the judicial branch — which Montesquieu considered the most important — would interpret law. Created, exquisitely, as a check and balance of government power in which to serve the people. “Only constant argument, and constant testing for equilibrium, can ensure a free, humane and prudent politics.”

The week began with two deportation flights filled with immigrants, asylum seekers, and alleged gang members soaring over the newly christened Gulf of America to CECOT in Tecoluca, El Salvador. Boesberg’s lifeline to Franco José Caraballo Tiapa — a 26-year-old Venezuelan barber whose complied with every protocol of U.S. immigration and naturalization over the past two years — goes out as much to José as to the republic.