House GOPers Help Dems Tank Bill Defunding ‘Activist’ Judges
Forty-six House Republicans joined Democrats to defeat an amendment offered by rep. Chip Roy (R‑TX) that would have cut funding for the D.C. District Court and D.C. circuit Court by 20% and barred spending on the staff salaries of Judges James Boasberg and Deborah Boardman. Roy framed the measure as a response to what he called judicial “activism,” accusing the two judges of placing personal preferences over the president’s policies.
The amendment, attached to a 2026 appropriations package, failed on a 163-257 vote (one present, 16 not voting). Roy and allies pointed to Boasberg’s role in issuing sealed subpoenas and nondisclosure orders in the Special Counsel’s “Arctic Frost” probe and to Boardman’s sentencing decision in the attempted-assassination case involving a would‑be attacker of Justice Kavanaugh as examples of allegedly improper judicial conduct. Republicans including Reps.Roy and Brandon Gill have filed articles of impeachment against the judges, but House Speaker Mike Johnson has not moved forward with impeachment proceedings.
The piece, written by Shawn Fleetwood for The Federalist, presents these developments and the political context behind the amendment and subsequent criticism of the targeted judges.
Forty-six House Republicans joined their Democrat colleagues on Wednesday in defeating a bill amendment that would have stripped funding from two activist judges and the D.C. federal courts.
Proposed by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, as an amendment to an appropriations package considered by the House for the 2026 fiscal year, the measure sought to cut the budgets of the D.C. District Court and Court of Appeals by 20 percent. Roy cited the D.C. courts’ overreaching activism in stifling President Trump’s policy agenda as the reason for the amendment during a floor speech ahead of the vote.
“One of the issues that we’ve been addressing is the extent to which the president, who was elected to fulfill a mandate, has been carrying out policies that he believes fulfills the mandate the American people gave [him and] that … my colleagues on this side of the aisle believe should be fulfilled,” Roy said. “And yet, there have been judges who have been putting their personal preferences and their activist tendencies in front of the will of the people and in front of the policies that the president is putting forward in such a way that raises questions about whether they’re carrying out their jobs responsibly and in accordance with normal judicial ethics and procedures.”
The final vote on the amendment was 163-257, with one member voting “present” and 16 not voting. Here’s the roll call showing how every member voted.
Roy’s proposed amendment also aimed to ensure that “[n]one of the funds made available” by the spending bill “may be obligated or expended for the salary and expenses for the staff” of D.C. District Judge James Boasberg and Maryland District Judge Deborah Boardman.
As The Federalist previously reported, Boasberg played an instrumental role in authorizing sealed subpoenas and nondisclosure orders targeting Republican senators as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s “Arctic Frost” investigation. The probe “ultimately became” Smith’s elector lawfare against Donald Trump.
Boasberg has also issued overreaching edicts in immigration-related litigation involving the Trump administration throughout the past year.
[EXCLUSIVE:[EXCLUSIVE:Memo Reveals D.C. Judges Are Predisposed Against Trump Administration]
Meanwhile, Boardman is most widely known for granting a lenient sentence to the man who attempted to assassinate Supreme Justice Brett Kavanaugh following the 2022 leak of the court’s draft Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. While prosecutors recommended “no fewer than 30 years to life imprisonment,” Boardman sentenced the wannabe killer to just eight years behind bars — a decision stemming from her apparent sympathies for the man’s “transgender” status and concern that he would be placed in a prison incongruent with his gender-bending fantasies.
Roy singled out Boasberg and Boardman during his remarks ahead of Wednesday’s vote. The congressman argued that both Democrat appointees have been “particularly egregious in their contempt of the president and putting their personal views in front of their duty as judges to carry out the jobs that they hold.”
Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, and Roy have filed articles of impeachment against Boasberg and Boardman, respectively, for their conduct on the bench. Despite calls from Senate Republicans like Texas’ Ted Cruz to initiate impeachment proceedings against the judges, House Speaker Mike Johnson has thus far declined to do so.
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