US Constitutional Court Judge John Roberts has made open criticisms of President Donald Trump in a highly unusual move. Roberts, who presides over the US Supreme Court, trumped Trump for his attack on a lower court judge.
The federal judge John Tigar from San Francisco had stopped at the beginning of the week by the President ordered restriction of the right of asylum by interim injunction. Trump then accused Tigar of political bias by calling him „the Obama judge.“ Tigar had been appointed by former President Barack Obama.
„We have no Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,“ said Judge Roberts. „Independent jurisdiction is something we should all be grateful for,“ he said. „What we have is an extraordinary group of committed judges who do their best to exercise equal rights with those who appear before them,“ said Roberts.
Trump responded to the judge’s criticism promptly via the news service Twitter. He wrote that the partiality of parts of the judiciary was „shocking.“ Judgments such as Judge Tigar’s „make our country uncertain,“ wrote the president. „Very dangerous and unwise.“ Addressing Roberts, Trump tweeted, „I’m sorry Mr. Chairman John Roberts, but there is ‚pro-Obama judge'“.
Trump had already attacked individual judges in the past who got in his way with decisions. However, it is very rare for an incumbent Supreme Court judge to openly criticize the US president, especially since Roberts is also a member of the conservative wing at the Supreme Court.
