HIGH-COURT’S CHIEF JUSTICE REBUKES PRESIDENT’S CRITICISM OF US JUDGES

 

…Chief Justice, John Roberts Jr.

It’s the first time a US Chief Justice ever responded to a US President’s statements.+

I have always been off and on about our Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts, Jr.  In some cases, he seems too conservative for me, in other cases, he is just what he is supposed to be: non-partisan and only calling “balls and strikes” as he should.

When Roberts had finally had enough of President Trump as Trump criticized what he called was “an Obama Judge” in the 9^th Circuit Court that had ruled against the Trump administration.

Good ole Trump had gone after this “Obama Judge” and Robert’s made it clear that: “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said this in a statement released by the court’s public information office. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.”

This was the first time that any Supreme Court Chief Justice had ever rebuked a current president’s criticism of the US judicial system.  Robert’s ended his Trump rebuke with: “That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

That is so true.

This was an appropriate comment from a Chief Justice, but obviously it was against an individual that only responds with counter-punches, no matter who has voiced a criticism.

The president responded to Roberts’ rebuke quickly from his vacation home in Florida,  of course via a Tweet:

Trump: “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. It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an ‘independent judiciary’ . . .”

So here are the real facts:

Trump is referring to the US Court of Appeals for the 9^th Circuit, which covers much of the West Coast.

Trump regularly has said that the 9th Circuit is the one that is most overruled by the Supreme Court.  But the studies show that over the past five years, three other Circuit Courts have a higher percentage of decisions overturned by the Supreme Court.  Just another falsehood from this president.

The rebuke-and-following-retort between two heads of two branches of the federal government has astounded those who regularly watch the Supreme Court.  Supreme Court Justices, and the Chief Justice in particular, seldom if ever issues any statements on news or events.

However, it appears that Chief Justice Roberts, when asked for a comment by the Associated Press, was eager to counter Trump’s false criticism of District Judge Jon S. Tigar.  The Roberts statement did not mention President Trump by name, but the rebuke against Trump was obvious..

The Chief Justice is usually an aggressive defender of the judiciary and this one has frequently expressed concern about attacks on its impartiality, whether they come from the left or the right.

In 2010, Roberts called the timing of President Barack Obama’s criticism of the court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC during the president’s State of the Union speech “very troubling”.  (I personally agreed with President Obama’s comment, but the Chief Justice is correct that the highest court is the final say on these issues and their decisions should stand until and unless it is shown that the court was wrong.)

Roberts made it clear just last month that he is particularly sensitive about the image of all of the US courts because of the recent partisan battle over the confirmation of Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.

Roberts says the Supreme Court will not serve “one partisan party”, but is to deal with the order of the law of the land.

At an event at the University of Minnesota just after the Kavanaugh’s confirmation, Roberts said the court served “one nation” and not “one party or one interest.”

All Supreme Court justices bristle at the suggestion they are not independent, despite Trump’s apparent confidence that his latest setback in lower courts just means “we end up having to go to the Supreme Court.”

Per Justice Roberts: “Our role is very clear: We are to interpret the Constitution and laws of the United States, and to ensure that the political branches act within them. That job obviously requires independence from all political branches. The story of the Supreme Court would be very different without that sort of independence.”

During the 2016 campaign, because Trump will always go after anyone he sees as the “enemy”, he frequently disparaged Chief Roberts, who was nominated by President George W. Bush.  Even though Roberts has a solidly conservative voting record in his 13 years on the Supreme Court, Trump labeled him an “absolute disaster” because of one single vote: Roberts had decided to join liberals to uphold the “Affordable Care Act”, also known as “Obamacare”.

In a tweet after the Court’s decision, Trump said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy “should be proud of ­himself for sticking to his principles, in light of Justice Roberts’ bullshit!”

Trump told reporters outside the White House that he had a “major complaint” about Judge Tigar’s decision, in which the judge temporarily blocked the administration from denying asylum to migrants who illegally cross the southern border.  

This has been the appropriate way for any “legal immigrant to apply for asylum in the United State”.  Yes, it’s crossing the border is  illegal, but it is to escape from being harmed in their own country.  They are not “illegal immigrants” if they are trying to escape tyranny and as a migrant, they apply honestly for asylum.

Judge Tigar, of the Northern District of California, ruled that federal law clearly states that migrants can seek asylum anywhere on US soil.

“Whatever the scope of the President’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” the judge wrote in the 37-page ruling.

Trump erupted about the judge’s decision. “This was an Obama judge. And I’ll tell you what, it’s not going to happen like this anymore,” the president said. “Everybody that wants to sue the United States, they file their case in — almost — they file their case in the 9th Circuit. And it means an automatic loss no matter what you do, no matter how good your case is.”

Trump added: “We will win that case in the Supreme Court of the United States.”

As usual, that most likely isn’t going to happen.

Trump is fixated on the adverse rulings that come from the 9th Circuit, which is considered the nation’s most liberal regional appeals court. It is also the largest, covering nine states, and in his tweet, Trump again called for breaking it up, a proposal that has been debated for decades without resolution.

Independent houses of US government do not respond to orders from the leaders of another independent division of US government.

It is true that Trump’s losing streak in lower courts is a nationwide issue, with district judges and appeals courts across the country ruling against the administration’s policies on issues as diverse as immigration, abortion policy for teenage undocumented immigrants and how to judge the Commerce Department’s actions on the US census.  Judges nominated by presidents of both parties have been part of those decisions.

Because of these Trump losses, the administration has pursued an aggressive agenda of trying to get the Supreme Court to take up the lower-court decisions before they have made the through a thorough and time-consuming journey of the appeals process.

The point is that even with a 5 to 4 conservatives vs liberals on the current high court, it has ruled pretty much as they should have.  That being that they have ruled about whether a law was constitutional and they have ruled solely due to the rule-of-law, not on the partisan basis that Trump has desired.

Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice for rebuking the president for being such an ignorant Chief-of-State.

Copyright G. Ater 2018