Chief Justice warns against ignoring the Supreme Court

Chief Justice John Roberts has been known to go his own way, even though he was considered a conservative when nominated by the second George Bush in 2005. This is most likely because he is far more a neocon than a conservative. He worked with both Reagan and the first Bush in various positions. He has voted with the liberals on matters that have pissed off the conservatives far too often to truly be a conservative in the truest sense.

Now, he is warning the incoming Trump administration over ignoring federal court rulings because of some of the comments. That is interesting, considering the amount of times the Biden administration has tried to go around rulings and the Democrats talking about impeaching members of the court at all levels. Liberals are cheering it because of the timing, but it could be the simple fact that Roberts knows the conservatives will complain, but will not attack the federal judiciary like the liberals have been.

What Was Said

Here, via CNN, was what Roberts said and the liberal response.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/31/politics/john-roberts-year-end-report-supreme-court-rulings/index.html

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts slammed what he described as “dangerous” talk by some officials about ignoring federal court rulings, using an annual report weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office to stress the importance of an independent judiciary.

Officials “from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings,” Roberts wrote in the report, released by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. “These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected.”

The chief justice didn’t detail which officials he had in mind – and both Republicans and Democrats have hinted at ignoring court rulings in recent years. Still, Roberts’ year-end message landed days before the January 20 inauguration of a president who has repeatedly decried the federal judiciary as rigged.

Trump’s agenda – particularly on immigration – could put the incoming president on a collision course next year with a Supreme Court he has helped to build by naming three conservative justices during his first term.

“Every administration suffers defeats in the court system – sometimes in cases with major ramifications,” Roberts wrote. And yet, he added, “for the past several decades,” both parties have respected court decisions and have headed off the kind of constitutional confrontations that arose during the civil rights era when some southern states declined court orders to integrate.

Roberts, in particular, pointed to decisions by the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations to enforce school desegregation rulings. In 1957, for instance, President Dwight Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to Little Rock to integrate its schools after officials sought to defy Supreme Court decisions that found segregated schools unconstitutional.

Roberts lamented that “public officials,” whom he also did not name, had “regrettably” attempted to intimidate judges by “suggesting political bias in the judge’s adverse rulings without a credible basis for such allegations.” Those attempts, he warned, are “inappropriate and should be vigorously opposed.”

As in past years, the chief justice avoided direct mention of the controversies and challenges brewing within the Supreme Court itself – including lingering questions about ethics, a weekslong scandal this year over controversial flags hoisted at Justice Samuel Alito’s properties and sagging public confidence in the nation’s highest court.

In a series of interviews before the election, Vice President-elect JD Vance raised doubts about his fidelity to Supreme Court decisions. In a 2021 podcast, as The New York Times previously reported, Vance urged Trump to respond to adverse court rulings “like Andrew Jackson did and say, ‘The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.’”

This is sounding interesting.

Thune Comments

Here, via a John Thune speech, is exactly how the Democrats have been attacking the Supreme Court. It's a little long, but I doubt most know of it.

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