Sen. Ted Cruz has urged House action to impeach two federal judges, arguing their decisions caused a constitutional injury by overstepping judicial authority and endangering legislative privileges and public safety.
Senator Ted Cruz used his role as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights to lay out a detailed argument for why Chief Judge James E. Boasberg and Judge Deborah L. Boardman should face impeachment. Cruz framed the push as an effort to hold judges accountable when they stray from the Constitution and harm the separation of powers. He emphasized the stakes for Congress and the public when judicial actions infringe on legislative privileges.
In his opening remarks Cruz declared, “Today’s hearing is on impeachment, holding rogue judges accountable. The American republic begins with a simple and radical truth. All power originates with the people before there is a congress, before there is a President, before there are courts, there is the sovereign citizen. The founders place that principle on the very first line of our National Charter. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, do ordain and establish this Constitution, they did not say we the judges, we the bureaucrats, we the elites. They said We the People.” He grounded his case in the founders’ view of accountability and the constitutional role of impeachment.
Cruz reiterated constitutional principles, quoting, “Judges enjoy good behavior tenure enforced by Congress through impeachment, a judge who ceases to meet the standard of good behavior well ceases to hold office, as Hamilton explained in Federalist 81 impeachment quote is alone, a complete security against the danger of judiciary encroachments and judges’ misconstructions of the will of the legislature.” He argued the founders anticipated impeachment for judges who misconstrue law in ways that threaten the people’s government. Cruz also pointed out historical precedent to show impeachment need not be limited to criminal acts.
He cited the historic removals to show Congress has long treated noncriminal misbehavior as impeachable, saying, “When Hamilton identifies misconstructions of law as grounds for impeachment, he makes clear that the founders created impeachment to protect the government and the people from the wayward decisions of errant judges.” Cruz added historical examples to underscore that impeachment addresses more than crimes and can respond to conduct that undermines public trust.
Cruz argued the immediate cases before the committee meet that standard. He charged Judge Boasberg with authorizing nondisclosure orders tied to an FBI project, which Cruz described as targeting members of Congress and concealing that targeting. Cruz said this amounted to a constitutional injury to the legislative branch because it chilled and concealed speech and legislative activity protected by Article I privileges.
“Judge Boasberg used the authority of his office to authorize and then to conceal targeting members of Congress,” Cruz said. “Spying on the Legislative branch and striking at the very heart of the Constitutional speech and debate clause.” He pointed to Boasberg’s own statements about potential evidence destruction and noted the judge approved orders without a clear factual basis about who would allegedly tamper with evidence.
Cruz also took aim at Judge Boardman for a sentencing decision in the case of Nicholas John Roske, the man who attempted to kill a Supreme Court Justice. He described Boardman’s choice to depart dramatically from the sentencing recommendation as alarming and inconsistent with the gravity of the offense. Cruz said the downward variance was justified in part by the defendant’s “trans identity,” and he argued that factor produced a sentence far below what prosecutors sought.
“Judge Deborah Boardman’s sentencing decision did not end with one defendant. It reverberated across the entire judiciary,” Cruz said. “She imposed a sentence 22 years below the sentencing guidelines on Nicholas Roske, a man who…armed himself with a gun, a knife, duct tape, zip ties, and traveled across the country with the intent to assassinate Brett Kavanaugh and other Supreme Court Justices.” Cruz emphasized the public safety implications of such a lenient sentence in a case labeled by prosecutors as domestic terrorism.
Cruz highlighted the practical consequences, warning that the reduced term could leave a dangerous offender free decades earlier than a guidelines sentence would allow. He said he had sent a letter to the Speaker urging the House to advance articles of impeachment against both judges. Cruz also noted that some Senate Democrats refused to say Boardman’s name during questioning, which he framed as tacit acknowledgment of how indefensible her sentence appeared.
“Thank you, Ranking Member Durbin. I would note that we’ve been through 40 percent of the Democrats who we’re question and so far my predict that not a one of them would utter the words Debora Boardman because they cannot defend her indefensible decision to deviate downward by 22 years to a would-be assassin of a Supreme Court justice, so fare 40 percent of the way in, that prediction has proved 100 percent correct,” Cruz said. He used that exchange to underline the political sensitivity of the issue among some senators.
The hearing set out a constitutional case built on separation of powers, privilege protections, and sentencing norms. Cruz argued that impeachment is the constitutional mechanism to address what he described as judges who misuse their authority in ways that injure the republic and endanger representatives or the public.
