A Gift From Trump to the Supreme Court

The Docket In a caustic critique of the court issued on social media late Sunday night, the president inadvertently buttressed its independence. “We don’t work as Democrats or Republicans,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in 2016. At his confirmation hearing in 2017, Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was nominated by President Trump, echoed the chief justice. “I do not see Republican judges, and I do not see Democrat judges,” he said. “I see judges.” Political scientists and the public see something different. Social science data shows a significant correlation between justices’ partisan affiliations and their judicial work. And public confidence in the Supreme Court is testing new lows partly because of the perception that politics is warping the justices’ work. On Sunday night, Trump offered an intemperate critique of the Supreme Court and its decision to reject his beloved tariffs program, in a social media post that inadvertently made the case for the court’s independence. The president differed from Justice Gorsuch on one point. He did see, as he put it, “Democrat Justices” who “just vote Democrat” and “Republicans” who “do not do this.” Trump added that Republican justices “go out of their way, with bad and wrongful rulings and intentions, to prove how ‘honest,’ ‘independent,’ and ‘legitimate’ they are.” You can put “honest,” “independent” and “legitimate” in scare quotes, but it’s still a gift. ‘A Weaponized and Unjust Political Organization’ Put aside for a moment Trump’s extraordinary Supreme Court winning streak in the first year of his second term, one that gave him at least temporary victories on immigration, grants, personnel, agencies and troops. He was focused on last month’s tariffs decision, in which Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett joined the three Democratic appointees to reject his plan. Related Content Advertisement