By Dan Levine
HONOLULU (Reuters) - One of three federal appeals court judges who last month upheld a ruling that blocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s first try at a travel ban said on Thursday it was “corrosive to the justice system” when litigants attack judges for their decisions.
Judge Richard Clifton of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the latest in a series of judges to draw criticism from Trump after Clifton and two colleagues refused to reinstate an executive order temporarily barring entry by people from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Shortly after the Feb. 9 ruling, Trump tweeted: “SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!” He also told reporters that the ruling was “political.”
“It’s easy to blame the referee when you don’t like the result,” Clifton said in a speech to the Conference of Western Attorneys General, which is meeting in Honolulu.
“It is corrosive to the system when a disappointing result, or result disappointing to you, is responded to by blaming the referee,” said Clifton, who did not mention Trump by name.
He urged the state attorneys general not to blame judges, saying it could lead to a “breakdown in law and order.”
Clifton, appointed to the court by former Republican President George W. Bush, was discussing the executive order case, but did not comment on any substantive issues about the travel ban.
The White House had no immediate comment on his speech.
Trump has frequently attacked judges who rule against him. Last month, he called a Seattle federal judge who ruled against the first travel ban a “so-called judge.” During last year’s presidential campaign, he said a San Diego federal judge overseeing a fraud lawsuit against Trump University was biased because of his Mexican heritage.
In an order issued late Wednesday related to Trump’s first travel ban challenge, a colleague of Clifton, U.S. Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, had words of his own for the invectives against members of the judiciary in these cases.
“The personal attacks on the distinguished district judge and our colleagues were out of all bounds of civic and persuasive discourse — particularly when they came from the parties,” Bybee wrote, declining to mention the president by name.
The judge, who was also appointed by Bush, added: “It does no credit to the arguments of the parties to impugn the motives or the competence of the members of this court.”
(Reporting by Dan Levine in Honolulu; Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson in Washington; Writing by David Ingram; Editing by Peter Cooney)