Trump calls on Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor to recuse themselves from 'anything having to do with Trump'

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

President Trump took aim at two Supreme Court Justices on Tuesday, calling on them to recuse themselves from "anything having to do with Trump."

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote a strongly-worded dissent in response to the court's decision to allow the Trump administration's "public charge" immigration rule in Illinois, which restricts immigrants who may rely on public benefits from gaining legal status. To Trump, their dissent in the case amounted to proof of anti-Trump bias.

"I just don't know how they cannot recuse themselves to anything having to do with Trump or Trump related," he told reporters while in India, reports CNBC. He also tweeted along the same lines, accusing Sotomayor of "trying to 'shame'" fellow Justices into voting along with her.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

Sign up
See more

Trump also referenced a 2016 instance when Ginsburg called Trump a "faker," before he was the Republican presidential nominee. She later apologized. After his Monday night tweets, Trump continued his tirade on Tuesday, calling Sotomayor's dissent "inappropriate" and "terrible." Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law President Kristen Clarke called Trump's comments "outrageous," explaining that Sotomayor and Ginsburg's dissent was a fair argument, and declaring the call for recusal "absurd."

As CNBC notes, the Supreme Court will soon hear arguments on other Trump administration cases, including cases on whether Trump can continue to withhold his financial records from Congress.

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Summer Meza

Summer is news editor at TheWeek.com, and has previously written for Newsweek and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. A graduate of Columbia Journalism School and Santa Clara University, she now lives in New York with two cats.