White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt continued the Trump administration's attack on the federal judiciary on Wednesday, accusing judges of "acting as partisan activists" in their objections to President Donald Trump's agenda.
Trump admin officials were recently barred from carrying out deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Over the weekend, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ordered the administration officials to halt any future deportations under the archaic and rarely used act, demanding that any deportees in transit be returned to the United States. Trump and associates flouted that order, mocking the judge over the timing of his order and sharing videos of the deportees in an El Salvadoran prison.
While Leavitt said on Wednesday that the Trump administration "will continue to comply" with court orders, she added that "Americans can absolutely expect to see the continuation of the mass deportation campaign."
"The judges in this country are acting erroneously. We have judges who are acting as partisan activists from the bench," Leavitt said, referring to the judiciary's constitutionally granted check on executive power. "They are trying to clearly slow-walk this administration’s agenda, and it’s unacceptable."
Leavitt: "It's incumbent on the Supreme Court to rein in these activist judges. These partisan activists are undermining the judicial branch." pic.twitter.com/PXgLxyh3c6
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 19, 2025
Boasberg has locked horns with Justice Department officials in the days since his temporary restraining order took effect. The DOJ has argued that parts of his order to stop deportations were "not enforceable" and delayed in handing over information about their compliance with his orders.
In a ruling pushing back the DOJ's deadline to turn over the requested info, Boasberg lambasted the executive department for failing to turn over the documents.
“As the Supreme Court has made crystal clear, the proper recourse for a party subject to an injunction it believes is legally flawed — and is indeed later shown to be so flawed — is appellate review, not disobedience,” the judge wrote on Wednesday.
The outright disobedience of federal judges — and calls for impeachment from Trump and his supporters — have inspired rare public statements from Supreme Court justices past and present. A day after Chief Justice John Roberts issued a statement calling impeachment "not an appropriate response," retired Justice Stephen Breyer backed his former colleague on CNN.
[The judicial system] doesn’t work by impeaching a judge because you don’t like his decision,” Breyer shared with host Wolf Blitzer.
