Liberal Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Thursday that threats against judges should stop and emphasized that judicial orders “need to be respected.”
“That’s just not the way our system works, not the way rule of law in this country works. That’s true for the Supreme Court, and it’s also true for every district court. Unless and until an appellate court or the Supreme Court says otherwise, judicial orders are judicial orders and need to be respected,” Kagan said at a judicial conference in Monterey, Calif., according to multiple outlets.
Kagan, one of the three liberal jurists on the nation’s highest court, advised judges not to be “aggravated or maddened” by the criticism they face over their rulings.
“The response to perceived lawlessness of any kind is law, and the way an independent judiciary should counter assaults on an independent judiciary is to act in the sorts of ways that judges are required to act,” the associate Supreme Court justice said.
President Trump, administration officials and their allies have slammed judges as unfair and at times “radical” when courts would not rule in their favor, particularly on the topic of immigration. Trump argued in May that the judge who ruled to pause the deportation of Venezuelan migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act should be “IMPEACHED!!!”
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, in a rare statement, rebuked the president.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said.
“The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts added.
The U.S. Marshals Service has warned some federal judges earlier this year about an increase in threats against them.
“Judges are fair game for all kinds of criticism, strong criticism, pointed criticism, but vilifying judges in that way is a step beyond and ought to be understood as such,” Kagan said on Thursday.
