A Tennessee Republican congressman says he will file articles of impeachment against the federal judge who blocked President Trump from ending Temporary Protected Status for Somalis, accusing her of defying the Supreme Court.
Rep. Andy Ogles announced on Friday that he plans to introduce the impeachment articles against U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, who issued a ruling preventing the Trump administration from terminating TPS protections for Somali nationals. Ogles, in a statement provided to Just the News, framed the move as a direct response to what he called Burroughs' refusal to follow Supreme Court precedent on the issue.
The congressman did not hold back. He accused the Obama-appointed judge of substituting her own preferences for settled law and acting to undermine the president's authority over immigration policy.
"SCOTUS made it very clear that lower courts cannot suspend TPS. Yet, an Obama-appointed judge is defying the Court and the Constitution in an attempt to subvert the will of the President."
Ogles said he intends to file the articles on Monday, though he did not specify an exact date beyond that reference in a post on X.
The impeachment push rests on Ogles' contention that Burroughs' TPS ruling contradicts a Supreme Court decision, one he says made clear that lower courts lack the authority to suspend the termination of Temporary Protected Status. The specific SCOTUS case Ogles is referencing was not identified in his public statements or his post on X.
That gap matters. Impeaching a sitting federal judge is an extraordinary step, one the Constitution reserves for "high crimes and misdemeanors." Ogles has not yet laid out the full legal basis for the articles beyond his charge that Burroughs engaged in unconstitutional conduct. The articles themselves have not been filed or made public.
Still, his language left no room for ambiguity about his view of the judge's conduct. In his statement to Just the News, Ogles said plainly:
"This judicial activist's obstruction of the people's will must be stopped. Judge Burroughs must be impeached."
On X, he went further, writing that Burroughs committed "her unconstitutional act of Judicial Activism" and adding, "Enough is enough, Americans First NOT 3rd world migrants."
Temporary Protected Status is a federal designation that allows nationals from certain countries to remain in the United States when conditions in their home country, armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary circumstances, make safe return difficult. TPS does not grant permanent residency. The executive branch has broad discretion over whether to extend or terminate the designation for specific countries.
The Trump administration moved to end TPS for Somali nationals, a decision consistent with the president's broader push to tighten immigration enforcement and reduce the number of foreign nationals living in the country under temporary or discretionary protections. Judge Burroughs blocked that effort with her ruling, though the specific legal reasoning she cited, the case name, and the date of the decision were not detailed in Ogles' announcement or the reporting on it.
For conservatives who have watched federal judges repeatedly intervene to slow or stop Trump-era immigration policies, Burroughs' ruling fits a familiar pattern: a single district judge issuing an order with sweeping national implications, effectively overriding the elected president's policy choices on a matter squarely within executive authority. Ogles is betting that this time, Congress should respond with its own constitutional tool, impeachment.
Several key questions hang over Ogles' announcement. He has not disclosed whether any co-sponsors in the House plan to join his effort. Impeachment articles can be introduced by a single member, but advancing them through committee and to a floor vote requires broader support, and the political will to take on a sitting federal judge.
Judge Burroughs has not publicly responded to Ogles' announcement. No statement from her chambers or the court appeared in the initial reporting. Whether the ruling applies only to Somali TPS holders or extends to other nationalities also remains unclear from the available details.
And the SCOTUS precedent Ogles cited as the foundation for his case, the ruling he says bars lower courts from suspending TPS terminations, has not been identified by case name, date, or citation. That detail will matter if the impeachment effort advances beyond a press release and an X post.
Federal judges serve lifetime appointments precisely so they can rule without fear of political retaliation. But that independence was never meant to be a license to override the elected branches on questions the Constitution assigns to them. If Ogles can show Burroughs defied a clear Supreme Court ruling, his case will have teeth. If he cannot, the effort will amount to a protest vote, loud, but toothless.
Either way, the episode underscores a tension that has defined the Trump era's legal battles: when unelected judges substitute their judgment for the president's on immigration, the public is left wondering who actually runs the country.
