U.S. Supreme Court Justice Judge John G. Roberts Jr. hinted that he will reverse a key high court precedent for Donald Trump, an ex-prosecutor said.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance, who also works as a legal analyst for MSNBC, weighed in on Trump's efforts to consolidate his power at the federal level.
Writing for her Substack blog, Vance noted that Trump is trying to use the court system to overturn a major case from the 1930s.
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"Humphrey’s Executor was the plaintiff in a 1930s court case. Mr. Humphrey, a Federal Trade Commissioner, had passed away, and the executor of his will wanted to recover the salary he was due for his work as a commissioner from October 8, 1933, to the time of his death on February 14, 1934. The problem was that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had fired Humphrey, who refused to resign," Vance wrote. "The issue on appeal was whether the president had the power to fire Humphrey. The Supreme Court ruled that he didn’t."
That decision, according to Vance, "clearly doesn’t make Trump happy."
"The Trump administration is in the process of trying to upend the division of power under the Constitution. It is trying to assume congressional power for the executive branch and undercut the legitimacy of the judiciary while exposing individual judges to threats," Vance added.
Vance then said, "The open question is whether the Supreme Court will reverse its own precedent and sign on to Trump’s view," before asking, "What will the Supreme Court do?"
Vance then points to "ominous signs" that purportedly "came from the notorious ruling last summer granting ex-presidents wide immunity from accountability to criminal law."
"That case did not rely on the unitary executive theory, but Chief Justice John Roberts could not help but sing the tune. The president is 'the only person who alone composes a branch of government,' he wrote," according to Vance's essay.
She adds, "The question is whether precedent will trump politics, or whether a conservative majority on the Supreme Court will continue to turn over the keys to the kingdom to the president."