John Roberts embraces Donald Trump’s view of the presidency
CNN
Chief Justice John Roberts is so enamored with the image of a bold and fearless American President that he abandoned his usual restraint and declared a stunning level of immunity for a former president facing criminal indictment for trying to overturn an election.
Chief Justice John Roberts is so enamored with the image of a bold and fearless American president that he abandoned his usual restraint and declared a stunning level of immunity for a former president facing criminal indictment for trying to overturn an election. The man who famously likened judges to umpires who merely call balls and strikes instead, to re-employ a baseball cliché, swung for the fences. Roberts expansively interpreted constitutional protection for any president who might be indicted and all but ensured that former President Donald Trump will evade a trial for subverting the 2020 election before the 2024 presidential contest. Emphasizing the “unrivaled gravity” of presidential responsibilities and latching onto the term “fearlessly,” Roberts said a president makes “the most sensitive and far-reaching decisions entrusted to any official” and must be afforded the “maximum ability to deal fearlessly and impartially” with his duties. Joined by five of his fellow Republican-appointed justices (three by Trump himself), Roberts adopted an unstinting vision of presidential immunity, his traditional regard for the stature of the judiciary eclipsed by an aspiration for the institution of the presidency. Usually, Roberts cares about such overtly political divisions. Usually, he takes a more judicially institutional approach. He is also certainly aware that in previous weighty disputes over the separation of powers, the 1974 case of US v. Nixon, the 1997 case of Clinton v. Jones, the justices ruled unanimously – and both times against a sitting president. In those cases, justices voted against the interests of the president who appointed them.
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