Please remind me, again, but for which country is John Roberts the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?
That apparently would be the United States, unfortunately. Thursday, June 27, marked the second day in a row that Roberts joined the Four Looney Liberals on the Supreme Court: Elena Kagan, Notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer to undercut President Donald Trump by refusing to allow the Commerce Department to ask the citizenship of people in the 2020 U.S. Census. This came a day after Roberts and the Court Liberals defended the administrative state against the People of the United States.
What's worse is the decision on Thursday contradicts the reasoning that the Four Liberals on the Court plus Roberts made on Wednesday. The result of all this is that now that John McCain is dead, Justice Roberts is the new Swamp Rat of our time--a one man wrecking crew undercutting President Trump's efforts to Make America Great Again.
Everyone remembers Roberts in 2012 declining to strike down ObamaCare by joining the Liberal bloc to allow the "individual mandate" to stand. One commentator called Roberts' reasoning in the case, "incoherent." Even though he knew the law was unconstitutional, Roberts joined the then four Liberals on the Court because he didn't want the Judiciary to meddle with the Legislative Branch. Behind the scenes it was clear that Roberts had sided with the conservative justices, but then did back flips to defend ObamaCare.
On Wednesday, Roberts plus the four Liberals tossed the administrative state a lifeline by re-asserting the Auer doctrine that requires courts to defer to state and federal agency interpretations of their own regulations. That means people in court have to go an extra step to even challenge the administrative regulations imposed upon them by state and federal agencies.
As Roberts wrote in concurrence with Elena Kagan's decision: the People do not have equal standing with the administrative state. The underlying regulation must be "genuinely ambiguous" for that to happen. As long as the agency's interpretation is "reasonable ... authoritative, expertise-based, and fair and considered judgment," then the People can go pound sand.
This brings us back to Thursday's court ruling. Roberts and the four Liberals blocked the Commerce Department from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 United States Census survey required by the Constitution. Roberts and the four Liberal Supreme Court Justices stated that the administration's explanation for adding the question was insufficient and sent it back to the lower courts for further consideration, according to Fox News.
But President Trump raised the possibility of seeking reconsideration before the Supreme Court and still having the Commerce Department proceed with the citizenship question.
President Trump attacked the Supreme Court's reasoning on Twitter, saying that it "seems totally ridiculous" for the government not to ask such a "basic question." A citizenship question was asked from 1890 until 1950, it so happens. It also so happens that it was in the 1950s that unfettered immigration to the United States began.
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The Supreme Court majority of Roberts, Ginsburg, Kagan, Sotomayor, and Breyer raised concerns about the Trump administration's explanations for the U.S. Census proposal. Roberts wrote that the Supreme Court was presented "with an explanation for agency action that is incongruent with what the record reveals about the agency's priorities and decision-making process."
Roberts added that the court "cannot ignore this disconnect between the decision made and the explanation given."
Apparently, none of the four conservative justices, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and Sam Alito had a problem with the perfect sense that the census should count Americans only. Remember this is the United States, but Roberts who is the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, can't seem to ascertain that he is the top judge in the country and that he took an oath to uphold the Constitution.
In other words, Roberts on Wednesday said we must defer to the administrative state, but on Thursday, not so much. The Commerce Department can't seem to be allowed to draw the normal conclusion to count Americans only for the purpose of determining voting representation and access to federal programs.
At this point, I only have one final question: Will President Trump be able to get another Supreme Court nomination while we still have a GOP majority in the Senate to confirm a strict constructionist Justice? That way Swamp Creature John 'McCain' Roberts won't be able to do any more harm.
Daniel Wiseman is an independent political commentator, who focuses on national and international affairs. He spent nine years as a professional journalist in Wyoming before working in fund-raising, non-profit management, and is now working in New York City. Wiseman focuses his writing on how to bring the United States back to its Constitutional moorings. He writes exclusively for Canada Free Press.
Please remind me, again, but for which country is John Roberts the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court?
That apparently would be the United States, unfortunately. Thursday, June 27, marked the second day in a row that Roberts joined the Four Looney Liberals on the Supreme Court: Elena Kagan, Notorious Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer to undercut President Donald Trump by refusing to allow the Commerce Department to ask the citizenship of people in the 2020 U.S. Census. This came a day after Roberts and the Court Liberals defended the administrative state against the People of the United States.
