Chief Justice John Roberts Takes Trump To Task For His ‘Obama Judge’ Comments Over Asylum Ruling


President Donald Trump on Tuesday made some claims about a federal judge’s inability to be impartial due to his being appointed by former President Barack Obama. The highest-ranked judge in the highest court of the United States had something to say about that.

Chief Justice John Roberts rebutted Trump’s comments on Wednesday, telling the president and the public through a statement from the Supreme Court that he disagreed with the assessment from the chief executive.

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said, per reporting from ABC News. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

It’s a stunning and rare statement from any justice of the Supreme Court to make, let alone the chief justice.

Trump had expressed misgivings and frustrations with a previous ruling from a judge on an appellate court, who had ruled that his administration’s new rules restricting who can or cannot apply for asylum protections upon entering the country were improperly implemented.

“Whatever the scope of the president’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar wrote in his opinion, according to recent reporting from the Inquisitr.

Trump went on the attack on Tuesday after the ruling was made, alleging that Tigar’s ruling was not impartial because he was an “Obama judge.”

Trump also berated the Ninth District Court, of which Tigar is a part of.

“The 9th Circuit is something we have to take a look at because it is not fair,” Trump said, per additional reporting from ABC News. The president claimed those opposed to his policies had only to “run to this very friendly circuit” in order to get judges to rule in their favor and against him.

Before the comments from Roberts were made, Trump made a prediction that he would prevail at the end of the day. “We will win that case in the Supreme Court of the United States,” he said on Tuesday.

Following Roberts’s remarks, it’s less clear if the president will be successful in his appeal. Then again, Roberts did not signal whether he agreed with Tigar’s ruling or not — Roberts’s comments were made to point out he believed attacking a judge based on who made the appointment served no purpose and made no sense logically in the judiciary branch of the United States government.

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