The first shots were fired this week in the war between the White House and the American judiciary.

As expected, the courts have moved to block Donald Trump’s disregard for the constitution and the rule of law and to nudge him toward legality.

Not so expected is the Republicans response: The threat of impeachment.

So far four judges have either been threatened with impeachment or have had articles of impeachment lodged against them in the House of Representatives. They are:

• Judge Paul Engelmayer issued an order preventing DOGE from accessing the federal payments system.
• Judge John Bates ruled that health agencies must restore data related to gender-affirming care,
• Judge Amir Ali granted a temporary restraining order that halted Trump’s 90-day suspension of foreign aid.
• Judge John McConell ordered the White House to lift a freeze on federal spending.

But the bulk of the White House’s venom has been saved for and directed against Judge James Boasberg. He had the temerity to challenge the administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected Venezuelan gang members to an El Salvadorean prison.

The deportation was wrong on so many counts. For a start, the deportees were suspected criminals. They had not been convicted in a court of law. Furthermore, the Alien Enemies Act allows for the deportation of citizens of countries with which the US is at war. America is not at war with Venezuela. Finally, the administration ignored the judge’s ruling not to land the deportees in El Salvador and to return to the US.

Trump has chosen his fight well. Immigrants are unpopular. Immigrants who are suspected members of a violent Venezuelan gang even more so. So, MAGA—and the Republican Congress—is standing four-square behind Trump.

“If the liberals want to fight us on issue of deporting violent criminals, “ said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, “then bring them on. We’re ready and waiting.”

Opposing the emotive issue of violent gangs is the rule of law. Suspected criminals are protected by the law from imprisonment or deportation until such time as they are convicted. And even then, there are laws against cruel and unjust punishment.

This, however, has not stopped Trump and his supporters. Boasberg and the other judges have been subjected to death threats. Anonymous pizza deliveries have been made to their homes with the message: “We know where you live.” Elon Musk and MAGA activist Laura Loomer have attacked Boasberg’s daughter. Ms Leavitt went after his wife. Attorney General Pam Bondi called the Bush appointee a “Democratic activist” and accused him of meddling in foreign security.

Trump, however, went the full distance by appending Boasberg“–a rogue judge”—to the list of judge to the to-be-impeached list.

That was too much for Chief Justice John Roberts whose job is to protect the rule of law and the constitution as well as to preside over the Supreme Court. In a clear rebuke to the president, he said: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”

The defeated Democrats are in disarray. A Republican Congress is supine. The courts are the only American institution left standing between the rule of law and Trumpian chaos. The battle lines have been drawn. The first shots have been fired. Battle has commenced.

* Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and author of “The Encyclopaedia of the Cold War” and “America Made in Britain".