'Judicial power grab': Georgetown law professor details the Roberts Court’s overt 'contempt' for America

A long list of polls from 2022 and 2023 have shown the United States' reputation continuing to suffer. Gallup, for example, found that approval of the High Court has sunk to only 40 percent.

In a scathing op-ed/essay published by the New York Times on June 2, Josh Chafetz — a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. — lays out some reasons why the Roberts Court's bad reputation is well-deserved.

"Over roughly the past 15 years," Chafetz argues, "the justices have seized for themselves more and more of the national governing agenda, overriding other decision makers with startling frequency. And they have done so in language that drips with contempt for other governing institutions and in a way that elevates the judicial role above all others. The result has been a judicial power grab."

Chafetz goes to say that the High Court's image has suffered because of rulings on everything from "campaign finance law" to "congressional oversight" to "federal regulation."

00:01

The law professor emphasizes that the Roberts Court's heavy-handedness was evident long before Republican-appointed justices obtained their current 6-3 majority.

"In recent years," Chafetz laments, "the judiciary has shown little but contempt for other governing institutions. It has earned a little contempt in return."