Roberts doubles down as attacks against courts get more heated

I know I am in the minority for saying this, but while I am not necessarily a fan of Chief Justice Roberts, I believe he is doing an exceptional job considering the current circumstances.

The other side of that argument, however, is getting more upset with him after he just doubled down on defending the process and the courts.

Trump Upset with SCOTUS

Donald Trump wants to use the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport criminal and gang members who are illegal immigrants, but the courts are blocking him from being able to do that.

The reason is that this is a wartime piece of legislation, and while Trump constantly uses the word “invasion” at the border, for the purpose of this legislation, the court will never agree that illegals coming over the border are elements of an enemy force to justify the use of AEA.

To that point, after the Court released its ruling on the matter, Trump responded, “My team is fantastic, doing an incredible job, however, they are being stymied at every turn by even the U.S. Supreme Court, which I have such great respect for, but which seemingly doesn’t want me to send violent criminals and terrorists back to Venezuela, or any other Country, for that matter. People that came here illegally!

“We cannot give everyone a trial, because to do so would take, without exaggeration, 200 years. We would need hundreds of thousands of trials for the hundreds of thousands of Illegals we are sending out of the Country. Such a thing is not possible to do.”

AFL Sues Justice Roberts

I don’t really disagree, but the fact of the matter is that our Constitution guarantees everyone due process, so while it may be inconvenient, it is the law, and it must be respected unless Congress legislates an exception, which is where I maintain the pressure and focus should be.

Instead, America First Legal (AFL), a group founded by current Trump adviser Stephen Miller, just filed a suit against Roberts to put pressure on him to block judges from issuing the endless injunctions placed against the administration.

The suit, in part, states, "Under our constitutional tradition, accommodations with Congress are the province of the executive branch,” adding: "The Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office are therefore executive agencies," and must therefore be overseen by the president, not the courts.

When I first reported this, I suggested it was foolish to poke the bear when you need the bear on your side, and Roberts just did exactly what I expected him to do

Roberts Doubles Down

Some have taken Roberts' comments as an attack against Trump, but I beg to differ. I think they are a defense of the process that is currently in place, and he just did it again.

During an event in Buffalo, Roberts stated that the role of the federal court system is to "decide cases, but in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or the executive." And he is 100% correct, as the courts are part of the check-and-balance system in our government to ensure actions are legal, including executive orders, which still have to follow the law and the Constitution.

This is now the second time that Roberts has spoken on the issue, the first being when he stated that impeaching Boasberg was not the answer, saying, "Impeachment is not how you register disagreement with a decision.” In a previous statement on the issue, he stated, "For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

I find myself in heated arguments over this, usually with conservatives who either misunderstand the process and Roberts’ role in the courts or who have had their heads filled with misinformation from talking heads who are looking for clicks and likes rather than telling the truth. You guys know me well enough by now that if I thought Roberts was in the wrong, I would say it, but he’s not. And he is not attacking Trump, but rather defending the process, which is his job. Again, rather than throw venom at the courts, direct it at your local members of Congress, who are the ones who actually have the power to make the changes that Trump is trying to accomplish with executive orders.