The crusade had been largely driven by the Republican fringe — until the House speaker endorsed the radical campaign.
House Speaker Mike Johnson backs impeachment of judges who ruled against the White House
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Mike Walker (@newnarrative.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T16:11:51.932Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/mike-johnson-backs-impeachment-of-judges-who-ruled-against-the-white-house
At last count, House Republicans have filed impeachment resolutions against eight federal judges, though these radical efforts have been largely relegated to the party’s fringe. This week, that changed suddenly and unexpectedly. Politico reported:
Speaker Mike Johnson now supports the push inside his party to bring impeachment articles against judges perceived as antagonistic of President Donald Trump’s agenda — a notable shift for the Louisiana Republican who over the summer sought to squelch such effort.
‘I’m for it,’ Johnson told reporters at his weekly news conference Wednesday, responding to the question of whether he would endorse impeaching judges who have ruled against the administration.
He did not appear to be kidding.
Johnson on impeaching judges: "I'm for it"
— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2026-01-21T16:47:03.212Z
.....A group of congressional Republicans apparently interpreted Trump’s appeal as a d
irective and got to work introducing impeachment resolutions against judges who ruled against the White House’s preferences.
Indeed, the list grew quickly. Over the course of a few months, GOP impeachment resolutions were filed against Boasberg, U.S. District Court Judge Amir Al
i, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates, U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Boardman, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer, U.S. District Court Judge Theodore Chuang, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Engelmayer and U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell Jr. (Technically, Engelmayer is facing two parallel impeachment measures.)....
The campaign, however, was largely ignored by most GOP lawmakers. Of the eight judicial impeachment resolutions introduced in 2025, most have fewer than 10 co-sponsors. There are currently 218 House Republicans, including a great many who deserve to be seen as very far to the right, and roughly 90% of them have made no effort to support or to advance these efforts......
It’s worth emphasizing that the impeachment resolutions, should GOP leaders bring them to the House floor, are likely to fall short of a majority. What’s more, even if the House were to impeach any or all of these jurists, it would take 67 votes in the Senate to remove them from the federal bench, which is effectively an impossibility.
These obvious attempts at intimidating the judiciary, in other words, almost certainly won’t work.
But for Johnson to endorse publicly such a radical effort speaks volumes about how radical his politics have become.
Last year, a Marquette University Law School poll found that
70% of Americans opposed impeaching federal judges over anti-Trump rulings. There is, however, often a big gap between what the public wants and what Republican officials decide to do. Watch this space.
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