America First Federation Launches Effort to Impeach Three Federal Judges

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – The America First Federation (AFF) announced today that it is launching a campaign to impeach the three federal district judges who have unconstitutionally ruled to revoke President Trump’s executive orders to protect the United States from foreign terrorists.

“The three judges are Judge James Robart of Washington State, who overruled President Trump’s Executive Order 13679 on February 6, Judge Derrick Watson of Hawaii and Judge Theodore Chuang of Maryland who issued separate temporary restraining orders on March 15 blocking the nationwide implementation of President Trump’s Executive Order 13780,” AFF said in the statement released to The Tennessee Star.

“We are organizing in several states, beginning with Tennessee, Florida, and Texas, to ask Republican members of the House of Representatives in those states to file articles of impeachment against all three of these judges (Robart,Watson, and Chuang), individually, in the House of Representatives, and to ask the Judiciary Committee to commence impeachment hearings,” Mark Skoda, founder of AFF, said in the statement.

“Our efforts will initially focus on communicating this message to Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in Tennessee and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) and Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) in Texas,” Skoda said.

“None of these three judges addressed the statutes and Constitution pertaining to the legitimate authority of the Executive Branch to regulate immigration,” Skoda wrote in a commentary published on Monday at The Star.

In each of these cases, we find that the opinions of the court reflected the political perspectives of Left wing ideologues, Democrat campaign operatives if you will, as they entered campaign rhetoric as evidence prior to Trump gaining the presidency. In all cases, the opinions did not address the underlying statutes, but instead dealt with the “mindset” of the government as developed through Trump’s campaign comments.

“James Robart, the U.S. district judge in Washington State, offered little explanation for his decision to stop President Trump’s executive order temporarily suspending non-American entry from seven terror-plagued countries. Robart simply declared his belief that Washington State, which in its lawsuit against Trump argued that the order is both illegal and unconstitutional, would likely win the case when it is tried,” Skoda noted, then quoted National Review’s Rich Lowry, who said this of Robart’s decision:

“Judge Robart is trespassing on a core executive responsibility,” 

Skoda also noted Hans Von Spakovsky’s withering critique of the decisions by Watson and Chuang.

“Both judges based their decisions on a supposed violation of the Establishment Clause that bars religious discrimination, even though both judges acknowledge that the actual language of the executive order does not discriminate,” Von Spakovsky  wrote at the Daily Signal:

Watson admits that it “is undisputed that the Executive Order does not facially discriminate for or against any particular religion, or for or against religion versus non-religion.” Nevertheless, Chuang claims (as does Watson) that “the history of public statements continues to provide a convincing case that the purpose of the Second Executive Order remains the realization of the long-envisioned Muslim ban.”

These conclusions make no sense. As the government pointed out in these cases, the revised order explicitly explains its national security purposes and provides detailed information on why these six countries were chosen.

According to Chuang, the government asserted that “there is a heightened chance that individuals from the designated countries will be ‘terrorist operatives or sympathizers’ because each country is ‘a state sponsor of terrorism, has been significantly compromised by terrorist organizations, or contains active conflict zones,’ and those governments are therefore less likely to provide necessary information for the immigrant vetting process.”

All of which is just plain common sense—except to these two liberal judges.

 “Many who fail to recognize the existential danger the actions taken by these three federal judges pose to the very survival of our republic will suggest that these acts of judicial tyranny be stopped through the proper channels of the courts,” Skoda writes in his commentary:

However, the 9th Circuit has been problematic as one of the most overturned courts in U.S. history. The President could appeal to the Supreme Court as well, however, the current 4/4 Court could push this back to the lower courts. And of course, there is the matter of time.

In essence, the American public becomes a spectator. But that is not what we should be about given the obvious politicization of the judiciary and the actions of the Deep State.

As American citizens, with rights, privileges, and courses of action spelled out in the Constitution, we can and should pursue a more aggressive set of actions.

“The people must pressure their U.S. Representatives to take action and initiate Articles of Impeachment against these three judges,” Skoda continues in his commentary:

They must forestall this type of action in the future and chill the activist and out-of-control courts. Impeachment is the one action that the citizens of this country can initiate through their Representatives and push back on the Left, the Deep State and these activist judges.

We must choose: either we uphold and defend our Constitution, or we settle for living under the whim of unelected, unaccountable black robed tyrants.

The America First Federation will be working to convince key members of the House of Representatives to take action and uphold and defend the Constitution.

The federation includes state-based leadership and is committed to changing the dynamics of communicating clearly to its membership while supporting these principles. The approach will allow for clarity of message, rapid response to media misinformation while continuing to build on President Trump’s movement. The AFF will act in unison without a volunteer board and minimal overhead yet collaborate through a common set of principles.

The founders of the America First Federation include the following ten key states that will be the focus of activists’ efforts over the coming months. Those states are Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

“The America First Federation will engage Congressional representatives who believe that the judiciary and the Deep State is out of control. As such, we are turning our attention to the third, often overlooked, part of government: the Judicial branch,” Skoda noted.

The federation was formed in response to a concerted effort of misinformation and derogatory reporting propagated by the main stream media. The federation acts as a “rapid response” team to mainstream media misinformation while supporting President Trump’s agenda.

“It is clear that there is nothing within the rule of law that this president does that will not be challenged by the left. And they are able to find judges all too willing to ignore statutes and law that grants the President authority related to immigration while using innuendo, political rhetoric and campaign comments as the basis for decision,” activist and AFF board member Rebecca Ann Burke said.

“I find it incredible that even after watering down the second executive order, judges continued to rule against the President’s actions based on nothing more than their view of intent,” Mark Shackelford, Texas chair of the AFF said.

“How is it that judges now consider what one thinks as evidence in determining the validity of actions while ignoring the actual statute. And how is it that these same judges appear to be granting extra Constitutional rights to non-residents in the rest of the world? This cannot and must not stand,” Shackelford added.

” President Trump has now issued two Executive Orders temporarily halting refugees and immigration from several countries deemed security risks to the United States of America. These countries are locked in civil war, engaged in terrorist activity or have little to no infrastructure to properly vet incoming refugees to America. However, as we have seen all too often, Federal and District activist judges engage in political decisions to restrict the Executive or Legislative branch through what is often termed extra-legal or extra-Constitutional arguments,” Skoda said.

“Grass roots activists everywhere have worked to inform themselves, notify their representatives of their objections and take action in the form of rallies, meetings and calls into those representatives. Individual groups have worked tirelessly to assemble their members and deliver their comments to their elected legislators. The America First Federation will allow for a ‘clearinghouse’ of messaging, media comment, local video and documentation while at the same time aligning the affiliates in ‘one message, one face,’ the statement noted.

“There is an unprecedented effort underway by the Deep State to delegitimize and stymie President Trump along with those of us who supported his election. It is incredible that we continue to see the kinds of ad hominem attacks against this president while using activist judges to overturn his lawful actions,” Skoda said in the AFF statement.

“We will not stand by and wait for the courts to rule in such a blatantly political and ideological way anymore,” he concluded.