Trump escalates feud with Supreme Court Chief Justice over judicial independence
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NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump continued his attack on Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, making a fresh claim that judges are threatening national security, after the Supreme Court's leader issued an unusual rebuke to the president.
"Justice Roberts can say what he wants, but the 9th Circuit is a complete & total disaster," Trump wrote on Twitter, calling the San Francisco–based court of appeals "out of control".
In his tweet on Thursday -- Thanksgiving holiday in the US -- he also said "there will be only bedlam, chaos, injury and death" unless law enforcement can "DO THEIR JOB". He added that "Judges must not Legislate Security."
The tweet is one of three Trump has issued since Wednesday responding to Roberts pushing back on the president's criticisms of judges appointed by former President Barack Obama, as American news media highlighted the extraordinary clash between President Trump and the chief justice.
The sparing was set off by U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar's Monday ruling that temporarily barred the administration from requiring all asylum applications to be made at official ports of entry. One day after the decision, Trump derisively referred to Tigar as "an Obama judge," and ripped the 9th Circuit, which would handle any appeal.
Chief Justice Roberts contradicted Trump in a strongly worded statement and defended judicial independence.
Responding to complaints by Trump that judges appointed by Democratic presidents act against the current White House, Roberts said, "We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges."
It was the first time that Roberts, the Republican-appointed leader of America's highest court, has offered even a hint of criticism of Trump, who has several times blasted federal judges who have ruled against him.
According to US legal experts it was highly unusual for a US president to single out judges for criticism, and historians say a chief justice's challenge to a president's comments is unprecedented in modern times.
Chief Justice Roberts had refused to comment on Trump's earlier attacks on judges, including the chief justice himself. But on Wednesday, after a query by The Associated Press, the American news agency, he spoke up for the independence of the federal judiciary and rejected the notion that judges are loyal to the presidents who appoint them.
"We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them," Roberts said.
Trump hit back from his resort home in Palm Beach, Florida. "Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have "Obama judges," and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country," the president tweeted.
Trump has criticized the judiciary on numerous. Last year, the president scorned the "so-called judge" who made the first federal ruling against his travel ban.
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