Trump lashes out at chief justice over immigration rulings

President Donald Trump lashed out at Chief Justice John Roberts Wednesday after the Supreme Court leader rebuked the president for suggesting a U.S. judge was biased.

“Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have ‘Obama judges,’ and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country,” Trump said over Twitter.

He added: “We need protection and security - these rulings are making our country unsafe! Very dangerous and unwise!”

Trump dismissed a ruling against his administration on Tuesday because it came from an “Obama judge.”

In his first public criticism of the president, Roberts said in a statement, “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.”

Roberts added, one day before Thanksgiving, that an “independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

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The president’s criticism came after U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar, of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, put a stop on Monday to the Trump administration’s ban on refugees seeking asylum outside official points of entry along the U.S. border.

“You cannot win, when you’re us, in the 9th Circuit,” Trump said outside the White House when asked about the ruling.

The president complained that “they” file suits in the left-leaning 9th Circuit purposefully so that “we get beaten, and then we end up having to go to the Supreme Court.” In the case of the asylum ban, “they” refers to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“This was an Obama judge. And I tell you what, it’s not going to happen like this anymore,” the president threatened Tuesday.

The 9th Circuit also ruled against the Trump administration’s third attempt to enact a travel ban for people from several Muslim-majority countries last year.

Over Twitter, the president once again suggested the 9th Circuit was not an “independent judiciary” by claiming “so many opposing view” cases are filed there.

Prior to that, Trump sneered at a “so-called judge” who cracked down on a related travel ban.

The squabble between the heads of the executive and judicial branches comes more than a month after a nasty partisan battle to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaughleft some justices concerned about the Supreme Court’s reputation as an impartial arbiter of justice.

Following Kavanaugh’s confirmation last month, Roberts stressed the importance of maintaining the judicial system’s independence from what he called the “political branches” of government. The Supreme Court, he said, “would be very different without that sort of independence.”

• This article originally appeared on HuffPost.