{"id":2495527,"date":"2025-10-07T08:26:59","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T12:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/impeach-judge-who-let-would-be-scotus-assassin-off-easy\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T08:29:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T12:29:53","slug":"impeach-judge-who-let-would-be-scotus-assassin-off-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/impeach-judge-who-let-would-be-scotus-assassin-off-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Impeach Judge Who Let Would-Be SCOTUS Assassin Off Easy"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fimpeach-judge-who-let-would-be-scotus-assassin-off-easy%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2495527&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Last Friday, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman sentenced Nicholas Roske, who attempted to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and targeted two other conservative justices, to only eight years in prison-a sentence widely criticized as excessively lenient. Boardman&#8217;s decision appeared influenced by sympathy toward Roske&#8217;s revealed transgender identity, which she referenced during sentencing, raising concerns that ideological bias led her to excuse serious political violence. Roske had planned and prepared to kill the justices in response to the leaked Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, actions meeting the legal definition of domestic terrorism. Despite prosecutors recommending a 30-year sentence and applying a terrorism sentencing enhancement, Boardman dismissed much of the severity of Roske&#8217;s crimes, effectively normalizing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anderson-cooper-other-networks-are-promoting-second-u-s-civil-war\/\" title=\"Anderson Cooper: \u2018Other Networks\u2019 Are \u2018Promoting\u2019 Second U.S. Civil War\">politically motivated violence<\/a> when committed by those with left-leaning motives.<\/p>\n<p>The case has sparked debate about judicial impartiality and the appropriate use of sentencing guidelines, with critics warning that excusing such acts undermines the rule of law and public safety. Comparisons have been drawn to historical instances where <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >judicial systems selectively punished political violence based<\/a> on ideology, leading to societal instability. While some legal experts support the appeal of Boardman&#8217;s sentencing,the situation has also prompted calls for congressional impeachment of the judge to uphold judicial accountability and deter future leniency toward politically motivated violence. The controversy highlights the broader tension in the judiciary over political bias and the limits of judicial discretion in sentencing terrorism-related offenses.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Last Friday, Judge Deborah Boardman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland shocked anyone with a conscience by imposing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/news\/man-who-attempted-to-assassinate-justice-kavanaugh-sentenced-to-just-eight-years-in-prison\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">comically light sentence<\/a> on the young man, Nicholas Roske, who tried to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the spring of 2022, while also planning to kill two more of Kavanaugh&rsquo;s conservative colleagues. <\/p>\n<p>In doing so, she functionally condoned political violence &mdash; as long as it&rsquo;s from the left &mdash; and based her decision, in large part, on her sympathy for the purported transgender status of the would-be assassin. In a year of preposterous district court decisions, this one takes the cake: Boardman gave a slap on the wrist to someone who planned and attempted the worst sort of political terrorism, it seems, because of her ideological sympathies. The decision is so potentially corrosive to our civic peace that Congress would be right to consider impeachment proceedings against Boardman.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As federal district judges have found increasingly novel and extreme ways to foil the Trump administration&rsquo;s agenda, calls on the right for judicial impeachment have grown. Indeed, actual articles of impeachment <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/5213176-trump-administration-judges-impeachment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">have been introduced<\/a>. This past spring, the chief justice himself <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/donald-trump-federal-judges-impeachment-29da1153a9f82106748098a6606fec39\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">denounced the movement<\/a>. That he did so was imprudent &mdash; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2024\/sep\/18\/mitch-mcconnell-senate-gop-leader-blasts-judicial-\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">it&rsquo;s not for judges to decide<\/a> how Congress wields the impeachment power &mdash; but his basic argument was probably right. Going back to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Grand-Inquests-Historic-Impeachments-President\/dp\/0688171710\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the start of the republic<\/a>, there has been a general agreement that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/israel-and-hamas-are-embroiled-in-a-zero-sum-religious-war-and-so-is-the-west\/\" title=\"Israel and Hamas are locked in a religious war, and the West is also involved.\">mere political disagreement<\/a> is not enough to warrant impeaching a judge.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>What Boardman did in the Roske sentencing is different in kind from simply bending the law to rule against a disfavored party; she seems to have openly excused political violence on ideological grounds. She did this both in her substantive sentencing decisions and in her given justifications at sentencing.<\/p>\n<p>First, a reminder of what Roske did. As we now know from the sentencing recommendation, Roske was incensed by the leaked <em>Dobbs<\/em> decision while living in California. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/dc-md-va\/2022\/07\/28\/roske-supreme-court-justice-threats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mused openly<\/a>, &ldquo;Im gonna stop roe v wade from being overturned,&rdquo; continuing, &ldquo;I could get a least one, which would change the votes for decades to come, and I am shooting for 3.&rdquo; He then researched how to carry out an assassination, proceeded to supply himself for the enterprise &mdash; he bought a gun, a knife, zip ties, burglary tools, and quiet shoes &mdash; and flew to Washington, D.C., to carry it out. He went to Justice Kavanaugh&rsquo;s house intending to kill him, but saw marshals on duty. After some time casing the house without incident, Roske seems to have gotten cold feet and turned himself in.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is terrorism, pure and simple. Roske intended to engage in deadly violence against public figures (Supreme Court justices) to change a public policy outcome (maintaining <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em>&rsquo;s regime of abortion on demand). That he didn&rsquo;t succeed is fortunate and beside the point: As Kavanaugh performs his judicial duties, he now has to worry about the real possibility of a left-wing lunatic coming to kill him or his family. The same goes for his colleagues, two of&nbsp;whom, again, were also in Roske&rsquo;s crosshairs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Boardman, it seems, didn&rsquo;t much care about any of this. The crimes with which Roske was charged carried a potential life sentence. The government asked for 30 years. Boardman, agreeing with Roske&rsquo;s attorney, gave him only eight. We know this was ideological because Boardman seemed more sympathetic to Roske than to the Kavanaughs. Of them, Boardman <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/10\/04\/biden-judge-gives-would-be-kavanaugh-assassin-light-sentence-as-left-wing-violence-skyrockets\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">concluded<\/a>, &ldquo;Though [Roske] got far too close to executing her [sic] plans, the fact of the matter is she [sic] abandoned them.&rdquo; Roske, in Boardman&rsquo;s telling, is a &ldquo;she&rdquo; because, on the eve of sentencing, Roske&rsquo;s attorney announced he was actually transgender.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Boardman lapped this up. At sentencing, Boardman <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/lukerosiak\/status\/1974100046565261334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reportedly was concerned<\/a> about whether Roske would be placed in a women&rsquo;s prison and given hormone replacement. She wondered openly whether Roske&rsquo;s claimed transgender status should affect his sentence, and why, three years after the fact, Roske is actually a threat to the public. She observed, in the end, that she was &ldquo;heartened that this terrible infraction has helped the Roske family accept their daughter for who she [sic] is.&rdquo; Boardman even speculated that Roske&rsquo;s terrorism was seeded in the challenges he had being transgender in a religious family. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blm-antifa-thugs-violently-attack-female-journalist-in-nyc-police-stand-by-and-do-nothing-video\/\" title=\"BLM...Antifa Thugs Violently Attack Female Journalist in NYC \u2013 Police Stand by and Do Nothing (VIDEO)\">left-wing terrorist<\/a> became the real victim once he announced he was a &ldquo;she.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the ideological sympathy, Boardman shockingly gutted Roske&rsquo;s &ldquo;terrorism enhancement&rdquo; at sentencing. In our sentencing regime, a defendant&rsquo;s sentencing range under the guidelines can go up if factors are present that justify &ldquo;enhancements,&rdquo; such as terrorism. <\/p>\n<p>As prosecutors here <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/2025\/10\/03\/kavanaugh-assassination-plot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a>, &ldquo;The defendant&rsquo;s objective &mdash; to target and kill judges to seek to alter a court&rsquo;s ruling &mdash; is an abhorrent form of terrorism and strikes at the core of the United States Constitution and our prescribed system of government.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Indeed, it seems Roske&rsquo;s lawyers didn&rsquo;t even disagree with the enhancement; they just asked Boardman to depart from the proposed guidelines range that the enhancement would establish. While Boardman acknowledged the crime did involve domestic terrorism, she then <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/lukerosiak\/status\/1974261098787352778\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">concluded<\/a> that the enhancement didn&rsquo;t make a lot of sense because some academics have argued that terrorists tend not to recidivate. The message from this is clear: If you engage in acts of terrorism but do it for the right reasons (e.g., preserving abortion and coming to terms with your so-called gender identity), courts don&rsquo;t need to treat it as terrorism.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Roske&rsquo;s sentence isn&rsquo;t just about Roske. Among other things, criminal sentences serve both to deter future criminals and to communicate society&rsquo;s values. We heard this regularly from the judges in the District of Columbia as they threw the book at Jan. 6 rioters. For example, Judge Royce Lamberth justified his actions, while sentencing a man to a prison term just shy of Roske&rsquo;s for using a megaphone to urge others into the Capitol, &ldquo;This cannot become normal; we as a society, as a community and as a country cannot normalize the events of Jan. 6.&rdquo; It seems, though, we can normalize the events outside Kavanaugh&rsquo;s house. Roske&rsquo;s sentence doesn&rsquo;t deter, and it communicates that what matters isn&rsquo;t political terrorism but the transgender journey of self-discovery.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s hard to explain just how corrosive this is to our body politic. Democrats today like to throw around the term &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/dispatches\/what-does-it-mean-that-donald-trump-is-a-fascist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fascism<\/a>&rdquo; to describe conservatives and Donald Trump in particular, but judges doling out soft justice to terrorists they agree with is far closer to what led to fascism&rsquo;s rise in Germany than anything Trump is doing. As Paul Johnson notes in his monumental <em>Modern Times<\/em>, while discussing the rise of Nazism in Weimar Germany, &ldquo;[T]he events of spring 1920 sharply increased a tendency already observable the previous year for judges to treat political violence, which had now become endemic in Germany, on a selective political basis.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>He goes on to note that in the early days of the Weimar Republic, political murder from the right occurred over an order of magnitude more frequently than from the left. And yet every single left-wing murderer was brought to justice while the right-wing murders were never solved or excused. Johnson argues this was because right-wing ideology had taken hold in both the German academy and the German judiciary, which resulted in a criminal justice system that viewed violence from the right as understandable and violence from the left as seditious. The parallels draw themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Boardman&rsquo;s decision to normalize political terrorism is therefore beyond the pale. It&rsquo;s not that she misapplied the guidelines or got a case wrong &mdash; although she does <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/24pdf\/24-297_4f14.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">get cases wrong<\/a>. By excusing threatened violence against the Supreme Court, her judicial actions fall somewhere between winking at and inviting anarchy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s good that the attorney general intends to appeal Roske&rsquo;s sentence. Even respected moderates such as Professor Orin Kerr <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/OrinKerr\/status\/1974260134781010003\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">agree she should<\/a>. But it&rsquo;s ridiculous that this case could eventually end up at the Supreme Court in the possible event that the left-wing Fourth Circuit agrees with Boardman. Will the justices have to rule on how to punish someone who tried to kill three of them? How many of them will recuse? Indeed, it&rsquo;s hard not to wonder if Boardman, assuming a number of conservative justices would need to recuse, figured she had an opportunity to &ldquo;do a little justice&rdquo; without meaningful appellate review.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The House will spare the court from having to, essentially, sit in judgment of its own case if it moves to impeach Boardman. It will send a message to other judges that political violence is not to be excused. Indeed, this should be a bipartisan message because reasonable Democrats shouldn&rsquo;t want Trump judges excusing, say, Proud Boys any more than we want Biden judges excusing trans-identifying terrorists. Impeachment proceedings would helpfully put Democrats to that question. Even if impeachment or removal doesn&rsquo;t succeed (it probably wouldn&rsquo;t), it would set a good precedent that judges who excuse political violence have to answer for it to the people&rsquo;s representatives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Judge Boardman may not be interested in deterring the next Roske, but the House has the power to deter the next Boardman.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Michael A. Fragoso is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a partner at Torridon Law PLLC. He was previously chief counsel to Sen. Mitch McConnell and negotiated the Border Act of 2024.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judge Boardman gave a shockingly light sentence to Roske<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3728,"featured_media":2495528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/boardman.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[33010,3636,50433,33641,6994],"class_list":["post-2495527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-criminal-justice","tag-impeachment","tag-judge-2","tag-legal-accountability","tag-scotus"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/boardman.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3728"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2495527"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2495531,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2495527\/revisions\/2495531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2495528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2495527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2495527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2495527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}