After the Supreme Court struck down his sweeping tariffs in a 6-3 ruling last month, Trump came out swinging. He called the six justices in the majority “unpatriotic and disloyal to the Constitution.” He accused them of being “swayed by foreign interests” without offering any evidence.
Among those six justices were two Trump picked himself, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. He called them “an embarrassment to their families” and said they “sicken” him.
Then he escalated, proposing legislation to “crack down on rogue judges” and punish courts that rule against him.
Former U.S. attorney Barbara McQuade laid out her view in her Bloomberg response.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
“Demanding that the legislative branch enact laws that punish the judiciary is a breathtaking breach of the president’s oath to support and defend the Constitution,” she wrote. She added that Trump is “sending a message to the others: Rule my way or else you’ll be next.”
That message is landing in courts that are already on edge. Threats against federal judges have more than tripled since Trump launched his first presidential campaign in 2015. A federal judge’s son was murdered at the family home in 2020. Judges across the country have since reported receiving unsolicited pizza deliveries placed in the murdered son’s name, a deliberate tactic to signal they are being watched.
The New York City Bar Association called Trump’s post-tariff attacks “a calculated and dangerous assault” on judicial independence, noting the personal nature of targeting individual justices by name carries real physical risk.
Chief Justice John Roberts stepped in, telling a judicial conference that “personally directed hostility is dangerous and it’s got to stop.” It was a rare public pushback from a court that typically stays silent. It was also notable that he did not name Trump.
The courts are pushing back in their own way too. Judges have started abandoning the judiciary’s traditionally measured tone in rulings against the administration.
A Reuters analysis found that 97% of the 31 emergency requests Trump’s Justice Department has filed at the Supreme Court since February 2025 claimed a judge was improperly interfering with presidential power.
Under Biden, that figure was 26% over four years. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche described the administration as being “at war” with the federal judiciary and called on young lawyers to enlist in the fight. The language of war, used by the nation’s second-ranking law enforcement official, against the nation’s judges.
Even the judges Trump nominated are showing signs of the pressure. At confirmation hearings, his appointees have consistently refused to say plainly that Trump lost the 2020 election, instead saying Biden was “certified” as president.
Jeffrey Toobin labeled it exactly what it looked like. “There is a special peril when federal judges, who serve for life if confirmed, agree to demean themselves in this fashion,” he said.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
