Connect with us

COMMENTARY

Chief Justice John Roberts Isn’t Our Savior From Trump — He’s the President’s Chief Enabler

Published

on

When the Justice Department and the Commerce Department announced on Tuesday that the case was closed on the Census’ citizenship question and the query would be left off the 2020 survey, I was immediately confused. Though Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had written a majority opinion for last week ruling that the Commerce Department’s fake justification for the question warranted blocking the agency from including it, he left an opening for the Trump administration to push forward with the effort as long as it provided another excuse.

And right on cue, President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that his administration wasn’t dropping the question after all, and the Justice Department announced that it is exploring paths to keep the query on the Census. Thursday morning, Axios reported that the president is considering an executive order directing the Commerce Department to include the question after all.

Some are arguing that this shows Trump is preparing to disobey the Supreme Court. Former federal prosecutor and legal analyst Joyce Vance said that by including the question, Trump could be committing an “unconstitutional” act.

But unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case. Roberts’ ruling was particularly narrow, and he appears to have given Trump plenty of room to wiggle out of it.

When Roberts affirmed a lower court’s decision to block the citizenship question and remand the issue back to the agency, he did so for one reason: its justification for the questions’ inclusion was obviously false. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had claimed that he included the question based on the Justice Department’s view that it needed the answer to enforce the Voting Rights Act. The public record contradicted these claims, and Robert concluded that the reason the administration provided “seems to have been contrived.”

Many hailed this as a bold move for the chief justice, essentially calling out the administration for lying. However, saying that the Trump administration is lying is no more praiseworthy that accurately describing the present weather. Of course the president and his officials are lying. It’s what they do. Not calling it out would be a derogation of duty.

And Roberts made it quite clear that it was only because the administration had been so brazen in its dishonesty that the Census question could be blocked:

Unlike a typical case in which an agency may have both stated and unstated reasons for a decision, here the VRA enforcement rationale—the sole stated reason—seems to have been contrived. The reasoned explanation requirement of administrative law is meant to ensure that agencies offer genuine justifications for important decisions, reasons that can be scrutinized by courts and the interested public. The explanation provided here was more of a distraction. In these unusual circumstances, the District Court was warranted in remanding to the agency.

This makes quite clear that Roberts is leaving Trump a loophole. It’s “typical,” he said, that an agency may conceal some of its reasons for taking a certain enforcement step. Since the VRA explanation was the sole reason given for the citizenship question, and yet it was “more of a distraction” than a believable claim, Roberts upheld the lower court’s ruling.

But this leaves open the possibility that the Trump administration could come up with another, non-fake reason for including the citizenship question, and that should suffice to allay Roberts’ doubts. It doesn’t matter if the administration has other, “unstated” reasons for including the question, because Roberts said this is “typical.” All it needs is a non-bogus justification in addition to whatever the true reason was that the question was initially proposed.

Perhaps it seems that, since the administration was obviously trying to hide its genuine reason to include the question — which was almost certainly to discriminate against Hispanic people and disadvantage Democrats — any additional justification that Trump officials might provide would also clearly be a pretext. But this isn’t so. To satisfy Roberts, the only thing Trump officials should have to do is imagine some possible benefit to including the citizenship question on the Census. It’s not clear the administration even has to actually think this supposed benefit is, in fact, a benefit — the explanation would only have to not be obviously false. That would remove the “unusual circumstances” that Roberts said merited blocking the citizenship question.

To be clear, I’m not defending Trump or Roberts. The question was clearly designed for discriminatory and illegitimate purposes. But as Joshua Matz argued at the law blog Take Care, Roberts seemed to dismiss many of the good reasons he might have endorsed for blocking the citizenship question:

The result is a Supreme Court opinion that eliminates nearly every constitutional, statutory, and regulatory objection that has been raised against the citizenship question, and that describes the decision to include this question as reasonable in light of empirical uncertainty about the best way to calculate the total number of citizens.

Ultimately, the Chief’s only complaint is that Ross offered a rationale for this decision that—to borrow a phrase from Scalia—taxes the credulity of the credulous…

At bottom, then, the Chief’s objection concerns only the shamelessness of the administration’s bad faith. Before he dirties his hands upholding Ross’s decision, he has required Ross to clean things up a bit, thus ensuring that the citizenship question enjoys a patina of legitimacy when he finally okays it.

The Justice Department, it seemed, did not initially agree with my or Matz’s assessment of the ruling, because it concluded that the citizenship question was dead. But Trump seems likely to be proven right in the end, and he will probably get his way.

One reason the Justice Department may have been inclined to throw in the towel is that its own credibility was on the line. It argued multiple times before the court that the administration had a hard June 30, 2019 deadline before it had to begin printing the Census forms in order to comply with the legally mandated deadline. Trying to find a new justification for including the citizenship question, and having that justification vetted by the courts, could extend well past that deadline. Trump, however, doesn’t put much stock in his administration’s credibility.

And while the court won’t be happy about having been lied to on this matter, it’s hard to see how this could make a difference in the final decision of including the question. The Trump administration could always say it previously believed June 30 to be a hard deadline, but it found an alternative route by, say, printing an addendum to the Census forms that includes the citizenship question.

If Trump goes through with these shenanigans, as he seems intent on doing, he will have made a mockery of the judiciary. But Roberts will have let him. The chief justice has made clear that he intends on giving the Trump administration an excessive amount of leeway, as the decision to allow the Muslim ban to stay in effect first demonstrated.

Undoubtedly, Roberts doesn’t seem to like Trump very much. Last December, he took the rare step of appearing to respond directly to some of Trump’s claims when the chief justice declared that there are no “Obama judges or Trump judges.”

And yet Roberts was elevated to the court for a purpose, and that purpose was the protection and promotion of the conservative movement. That means empowering the executive branch and letting Republican presidents get away with abusing their office. By directly lying to the court and the American people, the Trump administration went farther than even Roberts was willing to bear in this instance. Not so far, though, that Roberts wasn’t willing to let Trump have a do-over.

He’s willing, in other words to be Trump’s enabler, even if he doesn’t like him.

It’s possible Roberts will surprise me and block another attempt by Trump to include the question. I seriously doubt it, but Roberts does have the capacity to surprise. Nevertheless, the chief justice gave Trump the window in his latest ruling to push the envelope even further, to try to see what he could get away with. By writing a more decisive ruling, he could have stopped this nonsense with the citizenship question in its tracks. Instead, he allowed Trump to drag out the fight.

 

Image: Screenshot via YouTube

There's a reason 10,000 people subscribe to NCRM. You can get the news before it breaks just by subscribing, plus you can learn something new every day.
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

COMMENTARY

Trump Starts Weekend Early After Griping Workers Get Too Many Days Off

Published

5 months ago

on

June 20, 2025

By

After stalling on a decision in the escalating Middle East crisis and delaying action—some say potentially in defiance of federal law—on the congressionally mandated TikTok ban, President Donald Trump, facing sliding poll numbers, a widely criticized budget bill on the brink of collapse, a looming debt ceiling showdown, and apparent tensions with his Director of National Intelligence, is heading to his Bedminster golf resort for a MAGA dinner and an early weekend likely to include several rounds of golf.

The decision to leave the White House early on Friday comes after he left the G7 early this week, reportedly to make a decision on whether or how to help Israel attack Iran. His former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, jokingly said Trump exited the conference with top world leaders because he was “bored,” The Hill reported.

The President is slated to exit the White House at 2 PM Friday.

READ MORE: ‘People Will Die’: Shock Over Trump Shutting Down LGBTQ Youth Suicide Hotline Is Growing

“With the world on edge, the president’s early departure underscores a pattern critics say reflects misplaced priorities, favoring fundraising and familiar retreats over the day-to-day demands of governance,” MeidasTouch News reported.

The long weekend also comes just hours after President Trump denounced “too many days off” for federal and other workers, a remark he made on Juneteenth, a federal holiday signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021. Trump had campaigned on passing the legislation to honor and celebrate the day that symbolizes the end of slavery, but made no mention of it this year.

“Too many non-working holidays in America,” Trump decried Thursday evening.

“I know this is a federal holiday.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. “I want to thank all of you for showing up to work. We are certainly here. We’re working 24/7 right now.”

This week, in addition to meeting with his national security team, and an “awkward” meeting with players of the Juventus soccer team, Trump presided over the installation of two 88-foot flag poles and the raising of massive American flags at the White House.

READ MORE: ‘Make Asbestos Great Again?’: Trump Slammed for Move to End Ban on Russia-Tied Carcinogen

Trump’s long weekend also comes just one week after millions protested his policies across all 50 states and internationally on Saturday, while he attended a military parade celebrating his and the U.S. Army’s birthdays, and after a tragic political assassination of a Democratic lawmaker and her spouse.

It also comes one week after Trump appeared to make a major about-face, saying farm, hotel, and restaurant workers are valuable and extremely difficult to replace. He suggested that ICE would pause targeting those workers, only to turn around just days later to announce “the largest mass deportation program in history.” The pause on deportations was canceled, leading one notable political commentator and legal analyst, Joyce Vance, to wonder if Trump is actually in charge.

“Who’s running the show?” she asked, suggesting someone may have “countermanded” him on the deportations. “Who’s in charge? Trump or someone else?”

READ MORE: Trump Appears to Confuse America’s Revolutionary War With the Civil War

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

COMMENTARY

‘The Generals Stay Silent’: Experts Alarmed as Trump Politicizes Army at Fort Bragg Rally

Published

5 months ago

on

June 11, 2025

By

Military and political experts, veterans, and journalists are condemning President Donald Trump’s political rally at Fort Bragg on Tuesday, warning he crossed a critical line by delivering overtly political and authoritarian-themed remarks before U.S. Army troops. They also expressed alarm that uniformed soldiers appeared at ease booing his political opponents—another troubling breach of military norms. Some now say the time has come for generals to publicly speak out.

The commander in chief entered the event to “Hail to the Chief,” and as he took to the stage, his “MAGA anthem,” “Proud to Be an American,” played. For nearly one hour, in about 9,000 words, Trump delivered a political stump speech. He attacked his political opposition, Democrats, including President Joe Biden and his administration, California Governor Gavin Newsom (“Newscum”) and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. He attacked transgender Americans. He attacked the Democratic U.S. Senators who opposed the nomination of Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary, calling them “a very hostile group of people that I think really don’t want to see America be great again.”

He got the soldiers to boo “the fake news” media, and President Joe Biden. He told them the 2020 election was “rigged and stolen.”

READ MORE: ‘Show. Us. The. Plan.’: Pentagon Chief Ripped for Dodging Budget Details in Heated Hearing

He attacked the people in Los Angeles protesting his deportation policies, describing it as “anarchy,” while telling the soldiers that defending their  civil rights was not the reason Americans fought overseas:

“Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third world lawlessness here at home like is happening in California. As Commander in chief, I will not let that happen. It’s never going to happen. What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country.”

He thanked the generals, and mentioned some by name. He talked about “the real generals,” as opposed to the ones Americans see on television.

Critics are warning of grave consequences.

“This is the most unacceptable and egregious politicization of our troops we’ve ever seen,” wrote veterans’ activist Paul Rieckhoff, an Army combat veteran, responding to video of Trump getting the soldiers to boo the press, President Joe Biden, and the mayor of Los Angeles.

“And it’s not a one off. It’s a strategy,” added Rieckhoff, who is also the founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). “And one we’ll see in full and dangerous display this weekend at his military birthday parade for himself. Trump wants the world to think our great military is HIS military. And wants to coerce and manipulate troops into making them think it is too. And driving down their public trust and approval by the minute. Trump has created America’s greatest civil-military relations crisis since the Civil War. And it’s just getting started.”

Retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel Alexander Vindman, a former Director of European Affairs for the National Security Council (NSC), warned: “America’s Generals and Admirals are terrified. They are cowed. They seem unlikely to hold the line and live up to their oaths to serve the U.S. Constitution.”

Lamenting that “the Generals stay silent,” he added: “Our democracy is in great danger. This morning I wonder if we crossed a line and there’s no going back.”

Army combat veteran Fred Wellman, a graduate of West Point and the Harvard Kennedy School who is now the host of the podcast “On Democracy.” responded to Vindman by saying, “The silence is deafening.”

READ MORE: Trump Mixes Up World Wars, Days, Civil Rights in Latest Remarks

Retired U.S Army lieutenant general Russel L. Honoré, who served as the commander of Joint Task Force Katrina, blasted Trump’s speech: “Damn @POTUS Speech At #FortBragg  was inappropriate, criticizing previous administration, and Generals while speaking to troops , I never witnessed that S..t like this in 37 years in Uniform.”

Author and former Under Secretary of State Richard Stengel observed, “Unlike other militaries, American soldiers do not swear an oath to the state, or a person, or a monarch, but to the Constitution. Trump calls them ‘his’ military—but they are ours, and they swear to ‘support and defend the Constitution,’ not one man.”

Tom Nichols, a retired U.S. Naval War College professor and Russia expert, at The Atlantic targeted the generals for staying silent.

He wrote, “senior officers of the United States military have an obligation to speak up and be leaders. Where is the Army chief of staff, General Randy George? Will he speak truth to the commander in chief and put a stop to the assault on the integrity of his troops? Where is the commander of the airborne troops, Lieutenant General Gregory Anderson, or even Colonel Chad Mixon, the base commander?”

“Where is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Dan Caine? He was personally selected by Trump to be America’s most senior military officer. Will he tell the man who promoted him that what he did today was obscene?”

Retired U.S. Army General Barry McCaffrey, often seen on cable news, called Trump’s speech “a disgraceful politicization of the active Armed Forces. He is the Commander in Chief. The only loyalty of the Armed Forces is to the Constitution. Their focus is on protecting America from foreign enemies. Grave danger.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

RELATED: ‘Doesn’t Even Know Who He’s Talking to’: Newsom Scorches Trump Over Military Deployment

 

Image via Reuters

 

Continue Reading

COMMENTARY

Trump Mixes Up World Wars, Days, Civil Rights in Latest Remarks

Published

5 months ago

on

June 10, 2025

By

President Donald Trump made a series of inaccurate claims in his remarks on Tuesday, conflating World War I and World War II, incorrectly suggesting he spoke with the governor of California on Monday when it was just after midnight Saturday morning, and asserting—contrary to the First Amendment—that protests, even peaceful ones, can be shut down with “heavy force.”

During remarks to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked when he last spoke with California Governor Gavin Newsom. “A day ago,” he said Tuesday afternoon, which was three and a half days after the governor confirmed his phone call. Trump also confirmed the call by sending a screenshot to a Fox News reporter. The screenshot read June 7, 1:23 AM.

“Recently, other countries celebrated the victory of World War I, France was celebrating, really,” Trump told troops at Fort Bragg on Tuesday afternoon. “They were all celebrating. The only one that doesn’t celebrate is the USA and we’re the ones that won the war. Without us, you’d all be speaking German right now. Maybe a little Japanese thrown in. But we won the war.”

RELATED: ‘Doesn’t Even Know Who He’s Talking to’: Newsom Scorches Trump Over Military Deployment

The United States was part of a coalition during both WWI and WWII. Trump was speaking about WWI, but then claimed, “Without us, you’d all be speaking German right now. Maybe a little Japanese.”

That’s a reference to World War II—Japan was on the side of the Allies, with the U.S., in WWI.

Also on Tuesday, Trump declared that anyone caught protesting his controversial military parade on Saturday will be met with “very heavy force,” despite the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly protecting political protests.

READ MORE: ‘Show. Us. The. Plan.’: Pentagon Chief Ripped for Dodging Budget Details in Heated Hearing

“We won the war, and we’re the only country that didn’t celebrate it, and we’re going to be celebrating big on Saturday,” Trump claimed. Veterans Day was initially created as Armistice Day to honor those who died in World War I.

“And if there’s any protestor that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force. By the way, for those people that want to protest, they’re gonna be met with very big force. And I haven’t even heard about a protest, but, you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force.”

The First Amendment protects both political speech and the right to “petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Trump did not state “violent protestors,” or “rioters.” He said “any protestor.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Subterfuge’: Noem Push a ‘Prelude’ to Invoking Insurrection Act, Experts Warn

 

Image via Reuters

 

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.