Chief Justice Roberts Probably Views Trump With Disgust

The Chief Justice should not play poker

Based on Donald Trump’s Twitter feed, it is evident that Chief Justice Roberts does not just vote the way Trump wants. Judge Roberts is most definitely not a partisan hack.

I’m not a body language expert — but I would not recommend that Justice Roberts ever play poker. He looked disgusted at Trump’s impeachment trial.

Supreme Court Justices are supposed to be apolitical. In past decisions, Roberts has shown a more conservative-leaning with his votes and opinions on the Court — such as his decisions limiting voters’ rights and earlier decisions on abortion.

Since Donald Trump has been President, however, his judicial temperament has noticeably changed. He appears more concerned with showing that the Court does not yield to a bloviating President’s political whims, but instead that it decides cases based on precedent or procedure — not automatically siding with the conservative viewpoint.

Recently, Justice Roberts cast the deciding vote allowing the Manhattan, New York prosecutors to subpoena Donald Trump’s tax records writing in his deciding opinion,

“In our judicial system, ‘the public has a right to every man’s evidence.’ Since the earliest days of the Republic, ‘every man’ has included the President of the United States.”

Since Supreme Court Justices are on the bench for life, Justice Roberts was there before Donald Trump, and he will be there long after Donald Trump. Roberts’s judicial temperament, if anything, is institutionalist. The Chief Justice views his role as having a duty to protect the Court as an institution and keep it relevant. He is playing a long game.

Perhaps due in part to wanting to distance himself from Trump, Justice Roberts does not behave like a strictly conservative jurist.

In the 2018 Supreme Court Opinion on DACA — where the Court ruled against the Trump administration, in an article by CNN’s Ariane de Vogue, Devan Cole and Jamie Ehrlich report,

“We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “‘The wisdom’ of those decisions ‘is none of our concern.’ We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action.”

Trump took to Twitter to attack the Supreme Court, specifically Justice Roberts. Trump feels that judges are indeed partisan and that “his Supreme Court,” which he thinks is now a 5–4 conservative majority, should vote his way — and his disappointment shows here.

And Elie Honig of CNN writes,

Roberts, in 2018, issued a rare public statement rebuking Trump’s criticism of the judiciary and reaffirming that “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges … That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

But partisanship is nothing new. In this photo, looking at the body language of the two men — I get the feeling that Roberts is looking at the majority leader like, “where is your soul? Can’t you do the right thing? How far will you let this President go?” That’s what I feel like I see in this photo. That’s what I want to see in this photo because I hope that Justice Roberts cares about the checks and balances on the Presidency and the independence of the judicial branch.

Although it could also be Mitch McConnell saying to Roberts, “you’re part of our conservative court project — what are you doing to us?” And Roberts is telling McConnell that “he didn’t sign up to protect a President like Trump.”

Whatever the dynamic at play, I am praying that Justice John Roberts continues to buoy The Supreme Court away from the radical right-wing activism that Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Lindsay Graham have just shoved down our throats. And, I pray that “whoever” is confirmed surprises the GOP as much as Roberts has. Although I have to be honest, Amy Coney Barrett scares the hell out of me.

I am worried about so many rights that have been hard-won in recent years and decades now at risk of being lost. I am concerned about womens and LGBTQ rights and advances in healthcare insurance — like protecting pre-existing conditions with a more conservative court. I worry about DACA for the dreamers. Why does a GOP President feel like perceived misery for so many? And we really won’t know until the next justice is seated.

Unless something short of a miracle happens, Barrett is about to take Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Court and possibly pull the Court far to the right for many years to come. Trump will likely lose, but his stench is likely to live on through his Supreme Court Justice installations.

And how will John Roberts vote with another right-leaning, conservative justice on the Supreme Court? Will precedent be his guide, or will he become more of an activist?

Only time will tell.

Jennifer Friebely is a New York-based content writer covering stories from personal development, marketing, and productivity to politics and music to whatever idea strikes. She has a 30+ year background in marketing and advertising and holds a BA in Political Science. Email her at [email protected].