WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's unusually personal criticism of federal judges has drawn rebukes from many quarters, including from Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, but not from the judges themselves.

And that's not likely to change, even if the tweeter in chief keeps up his attacks on judges. Bolstered by lifetime tenure, independent judges should not respond to criticism, no matter how harsh or that its source is the president, said a former judge, a law school dean and a constitutional law professor.

Judges "should basically give the tweets the attention they deserve, which means they should be ignored. This is basically a childish tantrum from someone who didn't get his way. And the judiciary should go about its business and decide cases, including cases involving him," said Vanderbilt University law professor Suzanna Sherry.

Trump's style may be different and his language more coarse, but the comments themselves are not the "threat to judicial independence that some commentators have made them out to be," said University of Pennsylvania law school dean Theodore Ruger.

Former U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell said judges would find themselves in unfamiliar territory "if they start critiquing the Twitter feed of the president."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_JUDGES_SILENCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-02-09-03-19-52