John Roberts Doesn’t Get to Lecture Us About Propriety

Chief Justice John Roberts is working overtime to convince the public that the Supreme Court is a paragon of judicial independence. Forgive us for rolling our eyes.

Chief Justice John Roberts speaking at Georgetown Law School on Monday, May 12

Chief Justice John Roberts is working overtime to convince the public that the Supreme Court – and the federal judiciary more broadly – is a paragon of judicial independence. At a public appearance last week in New York, the Chief Justice assured an audience made up of attorneys and judges that “The judiciary is a coequal branch of government, separate from the others with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law, and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president,” and in order to do this work judges “require a degree of independence.”

Then this week, at an event at Georgetown Law, Roberts lamented “ad hominem [criticisms] against the justices” and worried that the rule of law is “endangered.” Although he didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, Roberts's comments were seemingly in response to Trump’s repeated calls for judges who disagree with him to be impeached, as well as comments he’s made that judges who rule against him are “crooked.”

Forgive me for rolling my eyes at Roberts’s newfound call for propriety. It was Roberts, along with his MAGA colleagues, who attacked the guardrails meant to protect our democracy from an authoritarian like Donald Trump, including gutting the Voting Rights Act every time he gets the chance, and allowing gerrymandered Congressional maps that make the legislative branch comically unrepresentative of the American people – making it nearly impossible for the people to effectuate change at the ballot box.

If that weren’t bad enough, Roberts himself authored the opinion in Trump v. United States where he held the president has broad latitude to do whatever he wants without consequence, including committing crimes, as long as he does so as part of an official act. Donald Trump has taken that gold-plated get-out-of-jail-free card and used it with zeal, and it was that ruling that has emboldened him to become even more dictatorial than he was during his first term.

That’s why it seems…frankly offensive for John Roberts to now offer a lecture on how the government should work – a central reason why it doesn’t work right now is John Roberts’ fault. Trump’s assault on our democracy is only possible because John Roberts gave him permission.

I talked about this and a lot more with our friend Alex Aronson from Court Accountability on his Legal AF podcast. Check it out:

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