Bacon stresses respect for court rulings, support of 'checks and balances

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) on Wednesday stressed the importance of respecting court rulings and following judge’s orders as President Trump and his allies suggest the U.S. district court judge that halted deportation flights should be forced off the bench.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg lashed out at Trump administration lawyers on Tuesday for refusing to follow his order to halt or turn around the flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants, which touched down in El Salvador over the weekend.

“Our practice over 236 years has been to either respect the courts’ decisions or appeal to a higher court. I believe in the Constitution’s pillars of separation of powers, and checks and balances,” Bacon wrote in a Wednesday post on X, quoting a Politico article that referenced GOP efforts to impeach sitting judges. 

Trump is attempting to invoke the Alien and Enemies Act of 1798 to authorize his mass deportations, which is a wartime law. The administration has also argued the judge’s order didn’t apply to planes that had already left the country.

As Trump tests the constitutional limits of his power, Republican lawmakers have been torn between supporting the president and deferring to the courts on matters of constitutional interpretation.

Trump has jabbed the judge repeatedly on Truth Social since the decision.

“If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!” he wrote shortly after midnight Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, he wrote “This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts issued a rare statement countering the president’s remarks.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has also been among the Republican voices publicly urging the White House to comply with court rulings.

“We have a judicial system. If you don’t like the ruling, you can appeal the ruling and you can follow that through. But we are a nation of laws, and it is not necessarily for you or I to be the final arbiter here. This is why we entrust the judiciary with this responsibility,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has said the courts have a “valid role and need to be listened to.”