'Profoundly wrong sentiment': JD Vance criticizes John Roberts over role of courts
Vice President JD Vance responds to Chief Justice John Roberts' recent public comments that courts should 'check' the other two branches of government.
Adding to the brewing conflict between President Donald Trump's administration and the judiciary, Vice President JD Vance criticized recent comments by Chief Justice John Roberts that courts should "check the excesses of Congress or the executive."
"I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment," Vance said in an interview with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat for his "Interesting Times" podcast.
"That’s one-half of his job," the vice president added. "The other half of his job is to check the excesses of his own branch. You cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they’re not allowed to have what they voted for. That’s where we are right now."
Courts have repeatedly ruled against the Trump administration's deportation efforts, drawing the administration's ire.
The Supreme Court on May 16 continued to block the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants, sending the case back to a lower court for further review. On May 21, a federal judge in Boston ruled the administration violated a court order preventing deportation of migrants to countries not their own without adequate time to challenge the move.
Trump has expressed growing frustration with the rulings. He complained on social media after the Supreme Court's latest decision that the court "is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do."
"I know this is inflammatory, but I think you are seeing an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people," Vance told Douthat.
Vance was responding to remarks Roberts made during a judicial event in Buffalo, New York, on May 7. The chief justice was asked about the importance of an independent judiciary and said "it's central." Acting as a check on the executive and legislative branches "does require a degree of independence,” Roberts said, drawing sustained applause from the audience.
Roberts earlier pushed back against Trump's call to impeach a judge who ruled against him in an immigration case.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in March.
Trump has pushed the limits of executive power in the first four months of his second administration. With Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress, the judiciary has been the main check on his authority. Democrats and other critics have raised concern's about Trump's approach to the judiciary and whether he is respecting the constitutional separation of powers.
Lower court judges have ruled the administration disobeyed court orders. The Supreme Court ordered Trump to "facilitate" the return of a Maryland resident wrongly deported to El Salvador, but so far the administration hasn't brought him back.