As things stand, a relatively small group of House Republicans are pushing a series of impeachment resolutions targeting four sitting federal judges — and counting. Elon Musk hasn’t just touted the campaign against the jurists, he has also rewarded impeachment advocates with campaign contributions.
Last week, the whole far-right operation got a significant boost from President Donald Trump, who publicly called for the impeachment of a judge who ruled in a key case in a way the White House didn’t like.
On Capitol Hill, however, GOP leaders don’t seem overly eager to launch impeachment crusades against judges who’ve done nothing wrong, and who would never be removed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate.
So, what’s a partisan congressional leader to do? The answer, evidently, is to consider some radical alternatives to impeachment. Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman, an MSNBC contributor, spoke with House Speaker Mike Johnson, and the Louisiana Republican shared one possible approach:
We do have authority over the federal courts. As you know, we can, we can eliminate an entire district court. … We have power, funding over the courts and all these other things. But desperate times call for desperate measures and Congress is going to act so stay tuned for that.
Sherman noted soon after that the House speaker clarified that he didn’t mean this as a direct threat. “I’m trying to illustrate we have a broad scope of authority over the courts,” Johnson added.
And as part of this “broad scope” of congressional authority over the courts, what’s on the table? Quite a bit, actually. Over the course of the last week or so, Republican lawmakers have opened the door to a series of possible alternatives to judicial impeachments. GOP officials are considering:
- Legislation to bar district court judges from issuing nationwide injunctions.
- Blocking funding for district courts that issued rulings that Trump doesn’t like.
- Holding House and Senate hearings to focus attention on judges who’ve issued rulings that Trump doesn’t like.
It was against this backdrop that the House speaker brought up his belief that Congress could “eliminate an entire district court.”
For what it’s worth, most of these approaches would struggle to clear Capitol Hill: Even if they were to pass the House, they’d face Democratic filibusters and fail in the Senate.
The exception, however, is the possible effort to defund courts that bother the GOP majorities — because that might be added to a reconciliation package that would not be subject to a 60-vote majority in the upper chamber. Watch this space.