On Monday, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles (Tennessee) introduced a resolution to impeach U.S. District Judge John Bates after Bates required federal agencies to restore content removed from websites for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.
This impeachment resolution is the third action by Republicans this month against federal judges presiding over challenges to Trump’s executive orders.
“The impeachment filing against Judge John Bates is naked political retaliation for his defense of legal procedure regarding trans-related health data,” Khadijah M. Silver, supervising attorney for civil rights at Lawyers for Good Government, told Truthout.
Bates, a Bush appointee, ordered a temporary restraining order after agreeing with the plaintiffs that the removal of health-related documents by the Trump administration may have violated the Administrative Procedure Act and, in some cases, the Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires agencies to provide adequate notice before discontinuing “significant information products.” The Hill reported that over 80,000 pages had been removed from more than a dozen government websites in compliance with Trump’s anti-DEI and anti-trans executive orders.
“By targeting a judge who simply required agencies to follow the law before removing vital information, Representative Ogles has revealed this administration’s willingness to weaponize impeachment against anyone who stands in the way of their anti-trans agenda,” Silver said.
As part of his ruling, Bates ordered the republication of resources on LGBTQ youth, sexual health, contraception, and gender-affirming care, warning that the removal of such content could cause “serious injuries to the public health.” Doctors for America, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, had cautioned that this purge created a “dangerous gap in the scientific data,” which health professionals rely on to track disease outbreaks and provide evidence-based care.
The articles of impeachment filed by Ogles claim that Bates’s conduct in the case was “so utterly lacking in intellectual honesty and basic integrity that he is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.” In a social media post announcing the articles of impeachment, Ogles called Bates a “radical LGBTQ activist.” Elon Musk shared the announcement on X, stating, “Time to impeach judges who violate the law.”
“Elon wants to impeach judges for stopping him. This rep. called the judge a predator,” civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo said on Bluesky. “They’re spinning up the stochastic terror machine to threaten the judge into submission.”
Musk has also called for the impeachment of Biden-appointed U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson after Abelson blocked Trump’s executive orders aimed at ending federal support for DEI programs, and Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who temporarily blocked Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) from accessing Treasury Department payment systems.
Last week, Republican lawmakers introduced impeachment articles against Engelmayer — a move that was celebrated by Musk, who accused the judge of being “corrupt.” Musk’s accusation was condemned by the American College of Trial Lawyers, which said that his statement was “groundless and reckless,” and “demeans our system of justice and puts the rule of law at risk.”
Impeaching federal judges is very rare and requires a majority vote in the House of Representatives to impeach, followed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict and remove the judge from office. The most recent impeachment of a federal judge occurred in 2010, when U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous Jr. of Louisiana was impeached by the House of Representatives, convicted by the Senate, and removed from office for accepting bribes.
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
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