Former federal prosecutor Berit Berger said during a Saturday MSNBC appearance that recent public political remarks by U.S. Supreme Court justices indicate that the highest court feels “intimidated” and “scared” by President Donald Trump‘s recent “attacks on the judiciary.”

Newsweek has reached out to several legal analysts for comment via email on Sunday.

Why It Matters

Trump has repeatedly clashed with the judiciary, often singling out judges who rule against his policy priorities. He notably called for the impeachment of Judge James Boasberg after the judge ordered a halt to Trump’s deportation flights.

The president has also directed criticism and executive orders at lawyers and law firms, particularly those linked to investigations into the president and his political adversaries such as special counsels Robert Mueller and Jack Smith.

The Supreme Court, which heads the judicial branch and has 6-3 conservative majority, is typically viewed as a deliberative body intended to operate above partisan politics.

What To Know

Berger, who served as a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Offices for both the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York for over a decade, remarked on MSNBC’s Alex Witt Reports about the recent uptick in Supreme Court justices’ public commentary towards the administration, noting the justices “don’t usually like having to give any sort of political speech.”

Justices typically express their views during oral arguments or in written majority or dissenting opinions. However, on Thursday, liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson called out the “elephant in the room,” referring to the Trump administration, for attacking federal judges across the country who ruled against it, saying, “The attacks are not random. They seem designed to intimidate those of us who serve in this critical capacity.”

“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,” the justice continued.

Berger called Jackson’s comments “unusual” and one of the rare instances of a justice “breaking that barrier.” She also cited conservative Chief Justice John Roberts‘ statement pushing back against Trump’s call to impeach Boasberg as another example.

Roberts, in a March statement, said: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Berger said these statements “tell me that 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 noted that these attacks bring risks to the judges’ physical safety, but also “the independence of the judiciary and to the lawyers. As we have seen, the courts are really one of the last guard rails that we have to essentially determine what’s constitutional and not.”

Against this background of hostility, threats of physical violence against members of the judiciary have been steadily increasing. More than 60 federal judges who ruled against Trump’s policies have been subjected to online abuse, doxxing, and physical threats, a Reuters investigation revealed. Some judges and their families have also received threatening messages and even bomb threats, prompting increased security measures.

“If they feel like they can’t do their job without fear or favor, if they feel like there is a threat to their physical safety, then really the independence of our entire justice system has really broken down,” Berger said on Saturday.

What People Are Saying

President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on 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! Americans will have to get used to a very different, crime filled, LIFE. This is not what our Founders had in mind!!!”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, speaking at a conference for judges held in Puerto Rico on May 1 said: “A society in which judges are routinely made to fear for their own safety or their own livelihood due to their decisions is one that has substantially departed from the norms of behavior that govern a democratic system. Attacks on judicial independence is how countries that are not free, not fair, and not rule of law oriented, operate. Having an independent judiciary — defined as judges who are indifferent to improper pressure and determine and decide each case according to the rule of law — is one of the key ingredients.”

What Happens Next?

Legal battles over Trump’s use of executive authority are ongoing, with several high-profile cases involving higher education, immigration and due process still making their way through the courts.