Well it’s time to acknowledge Donald Trump’s biggest enabler, the Supreme Court, not only the three justices he placed on the court, but more than anyone, Chief Justice John Roberts. Roberts tacit support of unitary Executive theory (easier to just call it the President is King) has done more to shred the three equal branches of government safeguard built into the Constitution than any other actions in history, and the damage in the first six months of Trump’s second term will haunt America potentially forever. When you add in John Robert’s disdain for federal agency interpretation of laws and an almost pathological need to disregard past precedent, you get where we are today. A President with absolutely no constraints (yes Federal courts have temporarily stopped many of his initiatives, but with zero sign that the Supreme Court will back up any of the Appeals Court decisions it’s only a matter of time before all “holds” are eliminated) due to both a syncophantic Republican Majority scared of their own shadow and a passive at best or sympathetic at worst High Court two of the three branches of government are disabled.
The two key decisions that led to this disaster are the granting of absolute Presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for core executive actions (accompanied by a complete whiff on defining same) to Trump in 2024, and of course the overturning of Roe vs Wade in 2022, which set the stage for total disregard of precedent (wiping out almost 50 years of practice). The arrogance of the Roberts Court has only grown worse since 2022, refusing any attempts at an ethics or conflict of interest policy in clear view of Clarence Thomas’s profiteering from right wing elitist “gifts”, while also issuing an unbelievable stream of “shadow docket” decisions complete with no signatures, no rationales, just responding like a dog on a leash to any and all emergency requests from the Executive branch. The standard decision- we’ll let the Administration proceed while it “works its way” through the courts, fully realizing that the time frames involved in our court system mean likely at the end of Trump’s term. How pathetic. Unwilling to even explain their decisions, this practice has led to increasingly bitter minority opinions and an obvious ideological bent to the court. This court no longer makes decisions based on jurisprudence, precedent or reading the law, instead they make ideological decisions wrapped up in creative or at times wildly speculative interpretations of the law made up to suit the predetermined outcome.
The guiding light for absurdity in the rationale for decisions is still Clarence Thomas and his ridiculous 2022 Second Amendment opinion that firearms regulations must align with historical traditions to be constitutional. The fact that the types of weaponry available to the public today (automatic weapons, assault weapons, ghost guns, hell for that matter stinger missiles, nuclear bombs) is totally disproportional to that of colonial times in terms of mass killing doesn’t come into play at all. The interpretation of a well regulated militia has been expanded over time to mean all individual citizens. This debacle has led to the conclusion that one can just make up whatever rationale is required (even better when you call it “originalist” interpretation) to support an ideological viewpoint masquerading as jurisprudence.
At no point has the Roberts Court actually faced up to the Trump Administration and simply said no, what you are doing is unconstitutional, stop doing it immediately. Even when they in theory told the administration no (the Albrego Garcia deportation), when the DHS blew them off by saying they had no ability to bring him back (a stance quickly disproven by the administration itself when they decided to charge him with other crimes), the Court did nothing. They have allowed total dismantling of departments created by and funded under the exclusive “power of the purse in the Constitution” without any stopping to ask how those departments will meet the charters set out for them by Congress in the funding. They have allowed Trump to remove the heads of supposedly independent agencies, even those set up by Congress with specific stipulations to make them immune to political meddling as if everything reports to him. The scope of cruelty in deporting illegal immigrants, those in the country legally such as under TPS definitions or even U.S. citizens has been unchallenged by the Supreme Court, a truly shameful position that simply reflects ideological alignment, not any sense of judicial fairness. People are not getting due process rights, being set to horrific third world prisons under the flimsy rationale they can’t be returned to their native countries (when no one has asked), we’re building “detention” centers which are how many steps away from simply being concentration camps and now the President is directly threatening U.S. citizens with deportations because they hurt his feelings or don;’t ascribe to his agenda. Meanwhile, the sound of crickets.
Particularly egregious has been the relentless attacks on the freedom of the speech, freedom of the press and right to assembly where the President has blatantly extorted various news media and educational institutions into complying with his “vision” (not actual laws just his view of how things should be) by withholding federal funds, filing frivolous lawsuits and withholding key federal agency approvals like the FCC in exchange for financial payments. Does the Court ever stand up for freedom of speech or the press? No.
One can only wait to see the ultimate outcome of this dereliction of duty by the Chief Justice and the conservative wing of the court. Oh sure, every so often Amy Coney Barrett writes a negative opinion and is blasted by right wing media, or Neil Gorsuch appears out of nowhere on Native American rights but in general nothing but suck up sounds can be heard from the court. They continue to throw the Appeals Courts to the wolves doing all the dirty work of following the Constitution, only to interject themselves into emergency cases not to rule on the case itself, but to point out nuances in the judicial system like nationwide injunctions only in a truly horrible case (ending birthright citizenship), that results in Trump being able to proceed how he chooses with no restriction. The Cowardly Court it is. The great irony is that inevitably what will happen is Trump will go too far (all rich arrogant kids with no discipline do at some point) and then the Court will decide against him in a landmark case What will happen? He will directly ignore their order, claim immunity, say they “owe” him because he put them there, his followers will cry out to string up members of the Court who voted against him, the right wing media system will crank out misinformation daily to bring pressure on the Court and it will all unravel. When it does there will be no more judicial system in America. When that happens, send your congratulations to Chief Justice John Roberts as he is the architect of our downfall.