Trump & Roberts Are Both Wrong

A postscript to my earlier comments on the chief justice’s public statement as I awake from a yearslong slumber on these pages. First, I don’t question the correctness of the chief’s statement. I, too, think that President Trump’s call for impeachment of Judge Boasberg is both stupid and reckless.

It is stupid because all that Judge Boasberg has done is issue a temporary stay of deportation long enough for him to consider the merits. The case presents a complicated legal challenge to the president’s power under 200-plus-year-old statute that has only been invoked historically in wartime. That does not mean that the president’s position is entirely meritless, since the statute is meant to apply in broader circumstances than declared wars and includes a rather amorphous term “predatory incursion.”

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Shannen W. Coffin

Shannen W. Coffin, a contributing editor to National Review, practices appellate law in Washington, D.C.

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Chief Justice Roberts

A postscript to my earlier comments on the chief justice’s public statement as I awake from a yearslong slumber on these pages. First, I don’t question the correctness of the chief’s statement. I, too, think that President Trump’s call for impeachment of Judge Boasberg is both stupid and reckless.

It is stupid because all that Judge Boasberg has done is issue a temporary stay of deportation long enough for him to consider the merits. The case presents a complicated legal challenge to the president’s power under 200-plus-year-old statute that has only been invoked historically in wartime. That does not mean that the president’s position is entirely meritless, since the statute is meant to apply in broader circumstances than declared wars and includes a rather amorphous term “predatory incursion.”