In her new book, legal scholar Lisa Graves walks through all the ways that Chief Justice John Roberts "betrayed" Americans and "delegitimized the once-trusted institution" — all for President Donald Trump.
Speaking to Chauncey DeVega at Salon for a piece on Friday, Graves noted Roberts and those in his crew have "undermined the U.S. Constitution" as part of changing the United States into an authoritarian regime.
While Roberts may spin terms like "no one is above the law," when the moment came to stand by his words he blinked, said Graves, who's book is called “Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights,”
"When it mattered most — when Donald Trump asserted that he is above the law — [he] broke that promise," she told Salon. "The [Supreme] Court easily could have let the lower court ruling against Trump [having presidential immunity] stand, but Roberts orchestrated a ruling that effectively pardoned Trump retrospectively and prospectively. That unprecedented and partisan edict paved the way for Trump’s return to power."
To be clear, Graves said, there is no immunity for a president in the Constitution. To the contrary, in fact, "John Roberts chose to be the kingmaker, giving Trump king-like powers last year, and then this year mowing down well-founded and well-grounded temporary restraining orders [that allowed] an array of unilateral and extreme dictates to proceed — even though doing so will cause irreparable harm [by letting Trump] transgress constitutional provisions, laws passed by Congress and long-standing legal precedents."
Meanwhile, there is no accountability fo corruption among Supreme Court justices because Roberts refuses to enforce ethics rules with penalties, Graves noted. Also under his watch, judges like Clarence Thomas have been able to hide millions of dollars in gifts by failing to disclose them.
"Roberts has repeatedly failed to object when compromised justices fail to recuse themselves from cases in which there exists a reasonable, or more than reasonable, perception of impropriety or actual conflicts of interest by other members of his far-right faction. It is unreasonable and illegitimate for either Thomas or [Samuel] Alito to have participated in any of the Jan. 6 cases," the expert wrote.
"Their actions reveal a sense of impunity to act in a highly partisan way, to aid Trump in ways that have led to multiple constitutional crises and to carry out this extreme alteration of our laws in favor of Trump," she said.
Despite all that, however, Graves said that she remains "an optimist at heart." She said that she chooses "hope."
Meanwhile, Roberts "will ultimately go down as the worst chief justice in history," she closed.
