House Republicans Want to Impeach Judges. Here’s How the Process Would Work.

President Trump, Elon Musk and a handful of House Republicans have intensified their calls to impeach federal judges who have made rulings unfavorable to the Trump administration. But taking such a step over a court finding would break new ground in the relationship between the legislative and judicial branches, and draw condemnation as a violation of the separation of powers.

No federal judge has been impeached strictly for the outcome of a case. But the House does have broad power to act against federal judges.

House Republicans, facing demands from Mr. Trump, could press the Judiciary Committee to at least explore the idea. But Democrats and some Republicans are certain to resist. And even if the House were to summon the necessary majority to impeach a judge, persuading the required 67 senators to convict and remove a judge over a ruling would be highly unlikely.

Here is how the process works, and a sense of how the politics of the issue could play out.

What power does the House have to impeach a federal judge?

The Constitution says that “civil officers” of the United States can be impeached for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” some of which federal judges have previously been removed over.

But it is the more subjective high crimes and misdemeanors clause that impeachment advocates are pointing to as the basis for trying to remove James E. Boasberg, a veteran judge in the District of Columbia who temporarily blocked Mr. Trump’s plan for deportations under a rarely invoked 18th-century wartime law.

After Mr. Trump urged Judge Boasberg’s ouster, Representative Brandon Gill, a hard-right first-term Republican from Texas, filed articles of impeachment. Mr. Gill said the judge had used his position “to advance political gain while interfering with the president’s constitutional prerogatives and enforcement of the rule of law.”