Rule of law

Judges and Justices Should Be Independent, Trump Says, As Long As They Side With Him

The president says federal courts should not make decisions based on partisan considerations unless it benefits him.

Jacob Sullum | 3.20.2026 4:45 PM

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This week President Donald Trump rehashed his complaints about federal judges who rule against him, laying into the justices who rejected his "emergency" tariffs last month and lower courts that have hindered him in one way or another. Unlike his previous tirades in this vein, his recent comments acknowledge that there is such a thing as judicial independence. But Trump made it clear that he values that quality only to the extent that it corresponds with his own interests.

"The Courts treat Republicans, and me, so unfairly, always seeming to protect those who should not be protected," Trump whined in a Truth Social post on Sunday night. He cited a ruling by James Boasberg, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who last week blocked grand jury subpoenas seeking evidence to support allegations that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell misused public funds while overseeing renovation of the central bank's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Trump has repeatedly criticized Powell's policies and wants to replace him with a chairman who is more inclined to deliver the interest rate cuts he favors. But under federal law, the president can remove someone from the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors only "for cause"—a constraint at the center of Trump v. Cook, a case that the Supreme Court is considering. Trump's claims about the Federal Reserve renovation, which underlie the subpoenas that Boasberg quashed, seem to be aimed at meeting that standard.

"There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas' dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will," Boasberg wrote. "The Government has offered no evidence whatsoever that Powell committed any crime other than displeasing the President."

With that ruling, Boasberg committed the same crime. "How is this........

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