In a mild telephone town hall featuring few disagreements, Rep. Josh Brecheen (R) of Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District said Tuesday evening he believes Congress will soon reform the country’s court system.
At the start of the call that lasted about an hour, a woman identified as Tina from Tahlequah asked Brecheen how people could help judges from “slow-walking President Trump.”
“How do we as American citizens, how can we help you stop these federal judges from ruling our country?”
The question comes as President Donald Trump is calling for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. The Washington, D.C. jurist has become a target of Trump’s fury after blocking efforts to speedily deport Venezuelan migrants using seldom-invoked wartime powers.
The Trump administration claims the deportees are gang members, but Boasberg says those individuals have a right to address the charges.
Recent reports say Trump’s evidence for claiming gang involvement is unclear, and that eight women were returned to the United States because the detention agreement with El Salvador only covered men.
Brecheen said on the town hall that he and a group of six to seven lawmakers spoke with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson about a path forward for reforming the judiciary.
“Anyone who says, oh, that’s a separation of powers, the Supreme Court yes, is listed in Article III of the Constitution, however, the inferior courts are left as one of the enumerated powers that Congress can do what we want to,” said Brecheen.
Article III of the U.S. Constitution gives judicial powers to the Supreme Court and “inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.”
The idea of separation of powers is also enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. The term means branches of government are supposed to act as checks on each other to stop authoritarian rule.
Critics say Congress, so far, has done little with their legislative powers to check Trump, while the judicial branch has been more critical.
Brecheen said impeaching judges is a nonstarter because some other lawmakers “don’t see the validity of the opposite of good behavior being bad behavior,” and so invoking Congress’ right to court reform will be the most likely path to accomplishing Trump’s agenda.
"So what Jim Jordan, leadership is talking about doing, and I believe that’s the way we’re gonna get this passed, is looking to reform inferior court establishment left to Congress, whether it be a panel or determination for a select court to be the one where they can be the presiding justices relative to presidential action,” said Brecheen.
Next week, the House will vote on the No Rogue Rulings Act from Rep. California Darrell Issa (R-California) that would limit the power of the country’s hundreds of district judges to author national injunctions.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will also hold a House Judiciary Committee hearing next week to discuss “abuses” of judicial power.
