Judges' response to Trump criticism: Silence
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's unusually personal criticism of federal judges has drawn rebukes from many quarters, including from Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, but not from the judges themselves.
[...] that's not likely to change, even if the tweeter in chief keeps up his attacks on judges.
Bolstered by lifetime tenure, independent judges should not respond to criticism, no matter how harsh or that its source is the president, said a former judge, a law school dean and a constitutional law professor.
Trump's style may be different and his language more coarse, but the comments themselves are not the "threat to judicial independence that some commentators have made them out to be," said University of Pennsylvania law school dean Theodore Ruger.
Last winter, Trump called the chief justice "an absolute disaster" and "disgraceful" mainly for the two opinions Roberts wrote that preserved President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
Last week, Trump pegged U.S. District Judge James Robart as a "so-called judge" after Robart imposed a temporary halt on Trump's executive order barring people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from coming to the United States.
On Wednesday, he said the "courts seem to be so political," in reference to the three federal appeals court judges who are considering the administration's plea to enforce the order.