President Donald Trump has a fraught relationship with federal judges. During his presidential campaign, Trump lashed out at Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who was overseeing a lawsuit against Trump University, claiming that Curiel would be unfair in his ruling because of his "Mexican heritage." Then this past weekend, Trump skewered a George W. Bush appointee, Judge James Robart, over a temporary freeze on Trump's travel ban. For standing in the way of Trump's order, Robart was a "so-called judge," Trump claimed in a series of furious tweets:
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough put his foot down on the matter in an op-ed published at The Washington Post on Sunday. "I had intended to use this space to detail how the chaotic events of the past week had persuaded President Trump to put into practice a more rigorous process to avoid calamities like last week’s immigration executive order," Scarborough began. "But that subject will have to wait for another day, since the 45th president decided to use Twitter this weekend to repeatedly question the legitimacy of a sitting federal judge."
When a president tweets insults at a Hollywood star, the dignity of his office is tarnished. When a commander-in-chief uses Twitter to attack a loyal military ally, America's friends across the globe become unsettled. But when a president uses social media to question the legitimacy of a federal judge following an inconvenient (and temporary) outcome, that is simply unacceptable. From Marbury v. Madison to United States v. Nixon, our federal courts' power to interpret the Constitution has been sacrosanct. As Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote in U.S. v. Nixon, the concept of checks and balances endures because it has remained (to quote Marbury) "the duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." [The Washington Post]
Read Scarborough's full takedown in The Washington Post.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Testosterone therapy in women highlights the lack of women’s health researchThe explainer There is no FDA-approved testosterone product for women
-
Magazine solutions - November 7, 2025Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - November 7, 2025
-
Magazine printables - November 7, 2025Puzzles and Quizzes Issue - November 7, 2025
-
Senate votes to kill Trump’s Brazil tariffSpeed Read Five Senate Republicans joined the Democrats in rebuking Trump’s import tax
-
Border Patrol gets scrutiny in court, gains power in ICESpeed Read Half of the new ICE directors are reportedly from DHS’s more aggressive Customs and Border Protection branch
-
Shutdown stalemate nears key pain pointsSpeed Read A federal employee union called for the Democrats to to stand down four weeks into the government standoff
-
Trump vows new tariffs on Canada over Reagan adspeed read The ad that offended the president has Ronald Reagan explaining why import taxes hurt the economy
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
-
Trump demands millions from his administrationSpeed Read The president has requested $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for previous federal investigations
