Can Law Forbid Threatening Judges with Impeachment Because of Their Votes?
At a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., President Trump said this:
[H]ow courageous were our justices of the United States Supreme Court? What they did—they’re saving our country. They’re actually saving our country….
And I just have such respect for the job they’ve done against—and, you know, the radical left plays the ref. You know the great Bobby Knight? He supported me. He used to fight with the referees all the time. Scream at him, “Bobby, Bobby, please, don’t do that.” It’s not going to work. He said, “You’re right. It’s not going to work now.” It’s going to work for the next one. And the next call, there’d be a flagrant foul, and they wouldn’t call it. They didn’t want to get screamed at.
The radical left harasses our judges and harasses our justices. They scream at them. They call them names. They say they’re incompetent, they’re horrible, they’re this, they’re that, they should be impeached. They’re constantly saying they should be impeached. But they’re screaming. And you know what? It has an effect on some people.
But so far, they’ve been very strong. It’s really horrible. I believe it’s illegal what they do. And it’s a—I’m trying to give you things that you’ve never heard before, and this is true. I believe they are playing the ref. They’re constantly criticizing our great—some of our greatest justices and a lot of great judges.
You know, I kept hearing so much about the Florida case because, you know, they weaponized our system, our government, totally weaponized. The first time it’s ever happened. And they said, “My biggest case is in Florida, Florida, Florida.” And we had a very brilliant—I don’t know the judge—but a fair and very brilliant judge who took tremendous abuse. It would have been so easy for her to just rule against me. But she didn’t do that.
She ruled for—she threw out the whole case. It was thrown out. That was a big case. And I have such respect for her—— because she is, in fact, brilliant. But they were hitting her so hard. She’s going too slow. She’s that. She should be removed immediately from office.
These people are horrible. I really think—I really think it’s illegal what they do with judges and justices. They’re playing the ref no different than Bobby Knight….
[W]e can’t let these radical left thugs constantly scream at our judges and say, we’re going to impeach him, we’re going to take him out of office, or her. We’re going to do horrible things to him. Continuous—when you heard Schumer get up on the stairs of the courthouse, Supreme Court, and talk about, “Kavanaugh, we’re going to get you, Kavanaugh. We’re going to hit you,” or whatever the hell he said. If a mobster said that, they’d be put in jail immediately. He, frankly, should have been put in jail or certainly spoken to very strongly….
Now there’s a lot going on here:
[1.] Obviously, simply “criticizing” judges is constitutionally protected under modern First Amendment law (fortunately for Trump, who has shown little hesitation in criticizing judges). That wasn’t always so: During much of American history, judges punished people for “contempt of court” for their public statements that were seen as aimed at influencing court decisions. But in the mid-1900s, the Court made clear that such statements couldn’t be punished, at least unless they involved threats of violence and the like (see, e.g., Bridges v
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