Barbara McQuade, Guest Columnist

Trump’s ‘Rogue Judges’ Rhetoric Breaches His Oath

March 29, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC

Barbara McQuade is a professor at the University of Michigan Law school, a former US attorney and author of the forthcoming book, "The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government."

Did we just hear the president of the United States correctly? — Did we just hear the president of the United States correctly?
Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP

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President Donald Trump asked Congress last Wednesday to pass legislation that “cracks down on rogue judges.”

Trump has repeatedly blasted jurists who issue decisions he doesn’t like, even calling them “criminals” and “a disgrace to our nation.” But 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, which creates our three separate — and coequal — branches of government.