{"id":136575,"date":"2025-11-10T07:17:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/10\/conservative-warning-to-judges-get-on-board-with-trumps-agenda-or-get-impeached\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T07:17:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:17:57","slug":"conservative-warning-to-judges-get-on-board-with-trumps-agenda-or-get-impeached","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/10\/conservative-warning-to-judges-get-on-board-with-trumps-agenda-or-get-impeached\/","title":{"rendered":"Conservative Warning To Judges: Get On Board With Trump\u2019s Agenda Or Get Impeached"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Federalist Society\u2019s annual lawyers meeting is going on in Washington D.C., and yesterday there was a panel on Judicial Oversight of District Courts after Trump v. CASA<\/em>, limiting lower courts\u2019 ability to issue universal injunctions to block the enforcement of policies. Though conservatives won that case, and have a wildly partisan win rate<\/a> at the Supreme Court, panelist Chad Mizelle, former chief of staff to the Attorney General, still finds plenty to complain about. <\/p>\n

Mizelle\u2019s comments called out district courts that have tried to place constitutional speed bumps on the Trump agenda. Like his former boss, Mizelle says these are liberal judges that aren\u2019t acting in good faith (never mind that Reagan-appointed judges <\/a>are leading the charge). And he knows what we should do about it. Impeach them.<\/p>\n

Politico reports<\/a> on Mizelle\u2019s comments:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going to force the Supreme Court\u00a0to do something is fundamentally political pressure. It\u2019s going to be when Congress starts impeaching judges and saying \u2026 \u2018You are now encroaching into our territory,\u2019\u201d Mizelle said during\u00a0a panel discussion\u00a0at the Federalist Society\u2019s annual lawyers\u2019 meeting in Washington.<\/p>\n

Mizelle\u2019s impeachment battle cry\u00a0followed a somewhat cryptic story he shared that appeared to involve an implicit threat his father once issued to put down a stray cat in the family\u2019s yard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do I think DJT should do?\u00a0He should stand up, and he\u2019s already done this, and say, \u2018Judges, I know how to deal with stray cats,\u2019\u201d said Mizelle, who served as acting associate AG and chief of staff to AG\u00a0Pam Bondi\u00a0before stepping down last month. (Mizelle\u2019s wife,\u00a0Kathryn Kimball Mizelle,\u00a0is a Trump-appointed federal district court judge in Florida.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of course, there are problems with this strategy. Put aside the massive hit this would cause to the rule of law, but as a matter of logistics, this is nothing more than an empty threat. Remember, it\u2019s not that easy to kick someone out of their lifetime appointment. In order to actually remove a federal judge from the bench, you need 67 senators to vote to convict the jurist \u2014 and refusing to rubber stamp a far-right policy agenda isn\u2019t going to have the votes. (Hell, even before you get to the Senate\u2019s trial part of an impeachment, Mike Johnson would have to call the House of Representatives back from recess, and who knows when that will be<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Yet it\u2019s important to note that the impeachment option is so freely bandied about. We now live in a world of political retribution<\/a>, and this is merely another way conservatives are trying to apply pressure to eliminate the opposition to their agenda. Even if the opposition is rooted in constitutional concerns.<\/p>\n

Mizelle\u2019s words are chilling, and they don\u2019t exist in a vacuum. There\u2019s a sharp increase in threats against federal judges \u2014\u00a0up 327%<\/a>\u00a0in the Trump II era. Though Mizelle means treating judges who dare to question the far-right agenda like \u201cstray cats\u201d is impeachment, it\u2019s easy to see how an extremist might take the words more literally.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Conservative Warning To Judges: Get On Board With Trump\u2019s Agenda Or Get Impeached<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Federalist Society\u2019s annual lawyers meeting is going on in Washington D.C., and yesterday there was a panel on Judicial Oversight of District Courts after Trump v. CASA<\/em>, limiting lower courts\u2019 ability to issue universal injunctions to block the enforcement of policies. Though conservatives won that case, and have a wildly partisan win rate<\/a> at the Supreme Court, panelist Chad Mizelle, former chief of staff to the Attorney General, still finds plenty to complain about. <\/p>\n

Mizelle\u2019s comments called out district courts that have tried to place constitutional speed bumps on the Trump agenda. Like his former boss, Mizelle says these are liberal judges that aren\u2019t acting in good faith (never mind that Reagan-appointed judges <\/a>are leading the charge). And he knows what we should do about it. Impeach them.<\/p>\n

Politico reports<\/a> on Mizelle\u2019s comments:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going to force the Supreme Court\u00a0to do something is fundamentally political pressure. It\u2019s going to be when Congress starts impeaching judges and saying \u2026 \u2018You are now encroaching into our territory,\u2019\u201d Mizelle said during\u00a0a panel discussion\u00a0at the Federalist Society\u2019s annual lawyers\u2019 meeting in Washington.<\/p>\n

Mizelle\u2019s impeachment battle cry\u00a0followed a somewhat cryptic story he shared that appeared to involve an implicit threat his father once issued to put down a stray cat in the family\u2019s yard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do I think DJT should do?\u00a0He should stand up, and he\u2019s already done this, and say, \u2018Judges, I know how to deal with stray cats,\u2019\u201d said Mizelle, who served as acting associate AG and chief of staff to AG\u00a0Pam Bondi\u00a0before stepping down last month. (Mizelle\u2019s wife,\u00a0Kathryn Kimball Mizelle,\u00a0is a Trump-appointed federal district court judge in Florida.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of course, there are problems with this strategy. Put aside the massive hit this would cause to the rule of law, but as a matter of logistics, this is nothing more than an empty threat. Remember, it\u2019s not that easy to kick someone out of their lifetime appointment. In order to actually remove a federal judge from the bench, you need 67 senators to vote to convict the jurist \u2014 and refusing to rubber stamp a far-right policy agenda isn\u2019t going to have the votes. (Hell, even before you get to the Senate\u2019s trial part of an impeachment, Mike Johnson would have to call the House of Representatives back from recess, and who knows when that will be<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Yet it\u2019s important to note that the impeachment option is so freely bandied about. We now live in a world of political retribution<\/a>, and this is merely another way conservatives are trying to apply pressure to eliminate the opposition to their agenda. Even if the opposition is rooted in constitutional concerns.<\/p>\n

Mizelle\u2019s words are chilling, and they don\u2019t exist in a vacuum. There\u2019s a sharp increase in threats against federal judges \u2014\u00a0up 327%<\/a>\u00a0in the Trump II era. Though Mizelle means treating judges who dare to question the far-right agenda like \u201cstray cats\u201d is impeachment, it\u2019s easy to see how an extremist might take the words more literally.<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Conservative Warning To Judges: Get On Board With Trump\u2019s Agenda Or Get Impeached<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federalist Society\u2019s annual lawyers meeting is going on in Washington D.C., and yesterday there was a panel on Judicial Oversight of District Courts after Trump v. CASA, limiting lower courts\u2019 ability to issue universal injunctions to block the enforcement of policies. Though conservatives won that case, and have a wildly partisan win rate at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":136525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-FfSQao.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}