Professor ZZZ asks: “Can anyone recall a rebuke of a President by a
Chief Justice that’s anything remotely like this?”
Perhaps, Chief Justice Taney’s statement on the courthouse steps after
deciding Ex parte Merryman from the bench? And didn’t Associate
Justice Chase have some serious words, issued from the bench, about
Jeffersonians—and by implication about Jefferson? The latter ended in tears,
and arguably, so did the former.
Anyway, why should I care about the Chief Justice’s statements unrelated
to actual litigation before the Supreme Court? Is the Chief Justice imbued with
some religious or cult-like aura that makes such statements peculiarly
insightful or relevant to the legal or political system?
If Professor ZZZ is right, if this statement was meant as a “rebuke,”
then just maybe the Chief Justice should run for elected office—like Charles
Evans Hughes, Sr chose to do. If the Chief Justice’s statement was meant as a “rebuke”
in response to the lawful exercise of free speech (by the President), then just
maybe we might want to (re)consider precisely who is breaking “our” norms—or,
if we have common norms about which it is sensible to speak about. To be clear,
I certainly don’t think it is the role of unelected judges to “rebuke” either
citizens or elected officials for doing what it is perfectly legal to do.
[For what it is worth, I have made this point on other occasions. See,
e.g., Seth Barrett Tillman, This Is What Is Wrong With The American
Judiciary, The New Reform Club (Mar. 16, 2017, 4:23 AM), http://tinyurl.com/z4q9f8v;
Seth Barrett Tillman, Bob Bauer’s Free Speech Problem and Ours, New
Reform Club (July 23, 2017, 10:36 AM), http://tinyurl.com/y7ahouep.]
Seth
Welcome Instapundit readers!
Welcome Instapundit readers!
Seth Barrett Tillman, Did the Chief Justice Rebuke President Trump?, New Reform Club (Nov. 21, 2018, 2:19 PM), https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2018/11/did-chief-justice-rebuke-president-trump.html.
5 comments:
The plaintiffs knew what Justice Roberts denies.
What comment are you talking about???
Excellent point, Seth. I would not say Chief Justice Roberts isn't loyal to the Constitution, but his first loyalty is to the institution of the judiciary and that took precedence here.
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Justice Roberts was being interviewed on other matters and as an aside, was asked what he thought of the phrase "Obama Judge". Justice Goody-Two-Shoes gave an anodyne "Let's all pull together!"--answer. Did we really expect him to say "Yes--and I'm a Bush Judge, myself!"?
In other words, he didn't "issue a historic stinging rebuke". He simply gave a vanilla answer when asked which the Obama Media twisted into service for their needs. That is why they are Professional Liars--they can lie to you with an actual quote.
Roberts is wrong, of course. He was way too clubby about judicial tyranny. And the Prez was right on track--but this was another Agit-Prop event by a Hack Media that does little else.
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