(The Center Square) – In the newest instance of Republican backlash against judges who have impeded President Donald Trump’s rapid-fire reforms, two congressmen have introduced articles of impeachment against more federal judges.
Both lawmakers accused the judges in question of being “partisan activists” attempting to illegally block the president from exercising his executive authority.
Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., filed impeachment articles Monday against U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang from Maryland, who had ruled that Trump’s massive cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development were “likely unconstitutional” and imposed a partial preliminary injunction.
“An [former Democratic president Barack] Obama appointee and lifelong Democrat who blocked Trump’s travel ban in 2017. This judge literally peddled critical race theory as editor of the Harvard Law Review,” Ogles said on X. “Now he’s trying to save USAID, which gives money to terrorist and radical LGBTQ+ propaganda. Impeach him!”
U.S. District Court Judge John J. McConnell Jr. from Rhode Island is also facing possible removal after Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., filed articles of impeachment against him, also on Monday.
“This activist judge is guilty of abuse of power and conflicts of interest,” Clyde said on X. “Corrupt Judge McConnell – who stands to benefit from his own injunction – is attempting to block President Trump’s freeze and review of federal funds for waste, fraud, and abuse.”
McConnell had blocked Trump’s freeze on congressionally appropriated federal funding, accusing the president of infringing on the powers of Congress.
The newest two impeachment articles follow Rep. Brandon Gill’s, R-Texas, targeting of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg from the District of Columbia, who ordered deportation flights carrying 261 foreign prison gang members to an El Salvadoran prison to return to the U.S. Gill filed articles of impeachment at Trump’s demand.
The action prompted a rare rebuke from U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in a statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., reportedly seems uninterested in moving the impeachment articles forward. Only 15 federal judges have been impeached in U.S. history.
