Chief Justice John Roberts is pushing back against President Donald Trump’s description of a judge who ruled against Mr. Trump’s new migrant asylum policy as an “Obama judge.”
It’s the first time that the leader of the federal judiciary has offered even a hint of criticism of Mr. Trump, who has previously blasted federal judges who ruled against him. Mr. Trump had criticized U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar, who issued a temporary restraining order barring the Trump administration Monday from refusing asylum to immigrants who cross the southern border illegally.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that “we’re going to have to look at” the Ninth Circuit Court, which had ruled against the administration on asylum. He added that “every case” that goes through that circuit results in “an automatic loss” for his administration. “The 9th Circuit is very unfair.”
Roberts said Wednesday the U.S. doesn’t have “Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.” He commented in a statement released by the Supreme Court after a query by The Associated Press.
Roberts said on the day before Thanksgiving that an “independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
Last year, the president used the term a “so-called judge” after the first federal ruling against his travel ban. He also criticized a Bush-appointed judge during the presidential election for his Mexican heritage.
Gabbard has been criticized for her support of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator. She met with Assad last year.
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