Scott Perry threatens to impeach and defund federal judges over anti-Trump rulings

US Rep. Scott Perry called on House Republicans to start impeaching and defunding federal judges standing in the way of President Donald Trump’s agenda. Perry is upset that federal judges are issuing nationwide injunctions, which are hampering Trump’s ability to carry out his right-wing agenda. 

Congressman Scott Perry (R-York) last week called for US House Republicans to start impeaching federal judges and defunding their courts over rulings that block President Donald Trump’s agenda. 

“Just like everything else the left touch, and corrupts and destroys, they have done that to the courts, and the courts is out of its lane with these nationwide injunctions by individual circuit judges,” Perry said on the Steak for Breakfast Podcast. 

“The legislation that we pushed through [earlier this month] would limit it to those plaintiffs that bring the case in those courts. So that would be no longer nationwide injunctions.”

Nationwide injunctions are used by federal district courts to stop the implementation of federal policies until they reach a higher court. 

Earlier this month, House Republicans passed a bill that would block federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions and blocking some of Trump’s policies like ending birthright citizenship, banning transgender people from serving in the military, and unlawfully sending undocumented migrants to a Salvadoran prison. 

On the podcast, Perry suggested that Republicans should use reconciliation, a budgetary maneuver that fast tracks a bill through both chambers of Congress and doesn’t require 60 votes in the Senate, to pass the legislation.   

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Thursday that would limit or lift nationwide injunctions set by federal judges blocking Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship, a right guaranteed by the 14th amendment.  

Perry then went on to suggest that the House should start impeaching judges, calling it a “shot across the bow,” even though there won’t be enough votes in the Senate to convict the judges. 

“I think it’s a shot across the bow that the House has to take even if they’re not going to happen in the Senate, we’re not going to get a conviction in the Senate, but I think it’s important that we go through the exercise,” Perry said.

The Central Pennsylvania congressman also called on House Republicans to use the Holman rule, which was created in 1876, to reduce the salaries of federal judges that have been standing in the way of Trump’s agenda. 

I think what we also need to do is use the Holman rule to defund some [judges]. We don’t want to defund the whole judiciary,” Perry said.

“We need the judiciary. We need the courts. They have a vital role in an open and free constitutional society. But where there are rogue actors, Congress can take action and limit their pay limit, limit that office’s money and use the power of the purse appropriately to make sure that they get the message.”

Cumberland County Democratic Party Chair Matt Roan accused Perry of enabling Trump’s lawlessness in a statement provided to The Keystone. 

“Scott Perry’s attacks on the judicial branch is one of many examples of how the Republican Party has abandoned respect for the Constitution and the rule of law,” Roan said. “Perry’s number one priority is to enable Donald Trump’s lawlessness. The Trump administration’s record of losing court battles, presided over by judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans, including Trump himself, is not evidence of corruption in the courts, it is evidence of corruption of the Presidency.”