Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has delivered a pointed warning to judges nationwide as local courts have slowed the rollout of Donald Trump‘s political agenda.
‘We do have authority over the federal courts,’ Johnson shared at a press conference Tuesday. ‘We can eliminate an entire district court,’ he noted.
‘We do have power over funding over the courts and all these other things. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and Congress is going to act.’
His statement appeared to be a veiled reminder, if not threat, that Congress has their eyes on district judges that have issued injunctions and rulings against Trump’s policies.
Though the Supreme Court is the highest judicial body in the country, district courts, which have been issuing nationwide rulings foiling White House executive decisions, are overseen by Congress.
The White House has been frustrated with injunctions impeding Trump’s immigration, DOGE and other top priorities, prompting the 78-year-old to call for judges standing in his way to get removed.
‘We can eliminate an entire district court,’ Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Tuesday
Speaker Mike Johnson (L) told reporters the Congress has authority over district courts that have been stopping Donald Trump’s (C) policies with judicial interventions
District Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Boasberg blocked a Trump order to deport Venezuelan migrants
The president has called for D.C. district court judge James Boasberg to be impeached for issuing an injunction on the administration’s deportations of Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act.
Trump has also railed against district judge John James McConnell Jr. after he sided with 22 states and the District of Columbia to reinstate the flow of federal grants and loans that the White House froze as DOGE sifted through spending.
Republican lawmakers have already introduced articles of impeachment against McConnell and another Maryland based district judge, Theodore Chuang, who recently ruled that dismantling USAID is unconstitutional.
However, impeachment is unlikely as the maneuver would require Democratic support.
Though the speaker later clarified that he was not planning on destroying any court, he did say he wanted to remind people of Congress’s many authorities.
Article III of the Constitution states its up to Congress to ‘ordain and establish’ courts beneath the Supreme Court, meaning lawmakers fund and organize the lower court structure.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is currently looking into ways where Congress can reign in district judges.
Next week the committee is holding a hearing to examine Boasberg and other judge’s recent rulings.
President Trump at the Division I NCAA Wrestling Championship over the weekend
Trump during a Cabinet meeting on March 25
Jordan spoke with Trump about the upcoming hearing while the pair were watching the NCAA wrestling championships in Ohio over the weekend.
Eliminating lower courts and redistributing judges to other posts has been ordered by Congress before, but the practice is uncommon.
The issue may come to a head during the upcoming appropriations and government funding process, during which lawmakers may or may not push to defund or reorganize some lower courts.
