President Donald Trump hammered two leftist Supreme Court Justices late on Monday night over political remarks that they have made, stating that they should both have to recuse themselves in cases that involve him.
“‘[Supreme Court Justice Sonia] Sotomayor accuses GOP appointed Justices of being biased in favor of Trump.’ @IngrahamAngle,” Trump tweeted. “This is a terrible thing to say. Trying to ‘shame’ some into voting her way? She never criticized Justice Ginsberg when she called me a ‘faker’. Both should recuse themselves on all Trump, or Trump related, matters! While ‘elections have consequences’, I only ask for fairness, especially when it comes to decisions made by the United States Supreme Court!”
….on all Trump, or Trump related, matters! While “elections have consequences”, I only ask for fairness, especially when it comes to decisions made by the United States Supreme Court!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2020
As The New York Times reported, Trump’s tweets were in reference to “a recent dissent by Justice Sotomayor against an order by the court to allow the Trump administration to proceed with a plan to deny green cards to immigrants who are deemed likely to become ‘public charges’ reliant on government aid programs.”
Justice Sotomayor, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, complained that the other judges on the court ruled in a manner that was favorable to the Trump administration.
“Today’s decision follows a now-familiar pattern,” Sotomayor began. “The Government seeks emergency relief from this Court, asking it to grant a stay where two lower courts have not. The Government insists — even though review in a court of appeals is imminent — that it will suffer irreparable harm if this Court does not grant a stay. And the Court yields.”
Sotomayor then took a direct shot at the other judges and the Trump administration by suggesting that the judges were acting out of political bias, saying, “Perhaps most troublingly, the court’s recent behavior on stay applications has benefited one litigant over all others.”
Trump’s other shot came at Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who made political attacks on Trump in 2016. Trump responded at the time by hammering her in a series of tweets:
July 12, 2016: “Justice Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court has embarrassed all by making very dumb political statements about me. Her mind is shot – resign!”
July 13, 2016: “Is Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg going to apologize to me for her misconduct? Big mistake by an incompetent judge!”
July 13, 2016: “If I win the Presidency, we will [swap] Justice Ginsburg with real judges and real legal opinions!”
July 13, 2016: “Even the @NYTimes and @WashingtonPost Editorial Boards condemned Justice Ginsburg for her ethical and legal breach. What was she thinking?”
“The government has complained there has been an uptick of orders by lower courts blocking Trump policies nationwide,” CNN reported. “In late January, for example, when the court allowed the public charge rule to go into effect for every state except Illinois, Justice Neil Gorsuch joined by Justice Clarence Thomas voted in the majority and wrote separately to criticize the fact that the lower court had issued such a broad injunction impacting those who weren’t plaintiffs in the case.”
Attorney General William Barr and Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch have both slammed activist justices that sit on the nation’s lower courts who have used injunctions to block Trump policies from going into effect.