A former federal prosecutor cautioned Saturday that the U.S. Supreme Court is feeling "intimidated" and "scared" by President Donald Trump's ongoing attacks on judges and the broader judicial system as tensions escalate between the executive branch and the nation's highest court, Newsweek reported.
Trump's public condemnation of the judiciary has reached new levels of intensity, prompting rare and outspoken responses from members of the Supreme Court. According to former federal prosecutor Berit Berger, the Court appears increasingly unsettled by what she described as a pattern of intimidation from the president.
Berger, who spent over a decade in the U.S. Attorney's Offices for both the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, appeared on MSNBC's "Alex Witt Reports" on Saturday to discuss the mounting pressure on the judiciary. "They feel intimidated, they feel scared on these attacks on the judiciary, and it's not just one or two; this has been a pattern of intimidation. Not to just judges, but to lawyers," she said.
Her comments followed recent public remarks by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who addressed a judicial conference in Puerto Rico on May 1. Jackson criticized what she described as deliberate efforts to instill fear among judges, saying, "The attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity." She added, "The threats and harassment are attacks on our democracy, on our system of government. And they ultimately risk undermining our Constitution and the rule of law."
In a notable departure from traditional judicial restraint, Jackson warned: "A society in which judges are routinely made to fear for their own safety or their own livelihood due to their decisions has substantially departed from the norms of behavior that govern a democratic system."
Berger emphasized how rare it is for justices to speak publicly on political issues, noting, "They don't usually like having to give any sort of political speech." She described Jackson's statements as "unusual" and indicative of serious concern within the Court.
Chief Justice John Roberts also weighed in recently, defending Judge James Boasberg after Trump called for impeachment. Boasberg had ruled against Trump's deportation orders. "For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision," Roberts stated in March. "The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose."
Undeterred, Trump continued criticizing the judiciary on his Truth Social platform Saturday. "Can it be so that Judges aren't allowing the USA to Deport Criminals, including Murderers, out of our Country and back to where they came from? If this is so, our Country, as we know it, is finished!" Trump wrote. "Americans will have to get used to a very different, crime-filled LIFE. This is not what our Founders had in mind!!!"
A Reuters investigation found that more than 60 federal judges who ruled against Trump's policies had been subjected to online abuse, doxxing, and bomb threats.