Judge Suzanne L. Flynn was fired by President Donald Trump on Friday after a federal appeals court found that she made “inappropriate” comments about the president during a deposition in the case of a transgender teen.
Judge Flynn had told a federal judge that Trump was a “mentally ill man” during the deposition.
The decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was released hours before Trump is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress, and it will have immediate ramifications for the courts that have been the focal point of his contentious presidency.
The appeals court ruled that Flynn violated the Constitution when she said that Trump “is not a mentally healthy man.”
Flynn has been the target of much of Trump’s criticism for her comments during the two-day deposition in May, and her comments were widely condemned.
“I don’t think he’s going to be happy,” she told a Washington, D.C., reporter on May 8.
“He’s going see me as a very sick person, and I think that’s a pretty harsh characterization.”
Flyndan, who has represented transgender clients in civil rights cases and was a judge on President Bill Clinton’s appeals court, was the first transgender woman to hold a judicial position in the United States.
The case of 17-year-old Kayla Green is currently pending in U.K. courts.
Sources: USA Today, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Associated Press, Reuters, Washington Post article
