Chief Justice John Roberts' legacy is facing major questions as the U.S. Supreme Court returns from summer recess Monday amid mounting criticism that he's "emboldened Trump."
Trump is now eight months into his second presidency, and Roberts, who joined the high court 20 years ago, will now have to decide if it's time to push back on President Donald Trump's aggressive executive actions, according to analysis from Politico's Josh Gerstein.
"But critics say the court he oversees is doing little to rein in a president targeting political opponents for criminal prosecution, eliminating hundreds of thousands of federal workers without congressional input, and using funding halts to intimidate the country’s top universities. What’s more, many legal experts say, Roberts has actually emboldened Trump," Gerstein writes.
Trump so far has been "ecstatic" about his recent SCOTUS successes, many of which have been via "shadow docket." It's also put Roberts' "diminished" power in further doubt.
“The Supreme Court and the chief justice have given Americans zero reason to believe that they will slow this president in any way whatsoever,” said former 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig, a George H.W. Bush appointee. “The Supreme Court has acquiesced in — if not given its imprimatur to — the president’s lawlessness.”
Roberts' critics and allies say that his July 2024 ruling on presidential immunity is what gave Trump this confidence and sense that he's "legally untouchable." In that decision, which began with the federal prosecution of Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election results, the court's majority opinion said that presidents, even after leaving office, have broad immunity from criminal prosecution based on their official acts. It was written by Roberts, and could have been in an effort to protect former President Joe Biden, whom Trump alleged he would be launching a prosecution against.
But in whatever direction Roberts and the high court were expecting the future to unfold, the move has now had further ramifications.
“I’m immune from all of the stuff that they charged me with,” Trump said after the decision.
One judge, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Politico that Trump might think this is in perpetuity.
“I don’t think he … meant [it] to be for all time,” the judge said. “I think a lot of people think that was for all time, and I don’t think this was ever intended to be that way.”
Roberts did issue a rare statement in March after Trump called for impeaching judges who disagreed with him.
“Impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said.
And in the weeks leading up to Trump's inauguration, Roberts also issued a warning about "dangerous' talk of defying court orders.
“Every Administration suffers defeats in the court system — sometimes in cases with major ramifications for executive or legislative power or other consequential topics,” the chief justice wrote.