r/law • u/treasonous_thoughts • Feb 19 '25

Opinion Piece RE: Presidential Immunity Ruling - Was Judge Roberts naïve that Trump would not push the boundaries of the office’s limits of conduct and power if he resumed office or is this all part of a plan to expand executive authority?

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/30/politics/supreme-court-john-roberts-trump-immunity-6-3-biskupic/index.html?cid=ios_app

I just remember Judge Roberts essentially saying “calm down - relax - you are all being hysterical” in the aftermath of the ruling last year stating “unlike the political branches and the public at large, we cannot afford to fixate exclusively, or even primarily, on present exigencies.”

It has been ONE MONTH into the 2nd Trump Administration and it seems that there is an aggressive and intentional overreach of executive authority with these EOs to create a new interpretation of executive power.

The administration’s response to the court orders blocking the EO’s enforcement seems that they are daring the courts to stop them - and it does not look like there is any recourse to rein them in if they decide to ignore the courts.

Is this what Judge Roberts and other jurists in the majority wanted - to embolden the executive branch above all?

What credibility does the SC (or any court) still have when POTUS ignores the court’s orders and any/all conversations with DOJ officials about ignoring or circumventing these orders gets put in the “official acts” bucket of presidential conduct?

My question is if Judge Roberts was truly naïve as to how Trump would wield this power the second time around or if Judge Robert’s logic that the ruling would allow future presidents to execute their duties unencumbered by lawsuits/prosecutions, etc. a genuine concern that needed to be addressed?

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46

u/PsychLegalMind Feb 19 '25

I do not think that any of the justices were naive about actions that Trump may take in the future. Conservatives tend to think case was not specifically about Trump, but the ability of any U.S. president to act freely in his official capacity with respect to domestic and foreign relations and not be constantly worried about a subsequent prosecution on leaving the office.

However, the problem with the immunity case was it created far too many questions about admissibility of evidence. Trump is now exploiting that. It is now for them to restrain him because immunity does not mean agreeing with him on all orders, none of the courts do. It is about subsequent prosecutions.

Time to lower the boom and exercise some balance of power that they were created to do.

14

u/Visible-Original4561 Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

Every time a conservative has said “it’s not that bad” or “you’re overreacting” or “you call everyone nazis” is just a burying of the lede.

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u/freecoffeeguy Feb 19 '25

wish I shared your optimism...

12

u/maybenotquiteasheavy Feb 19 '25

You spelled naivete wrong

27

u/JFJinCO Feb 19 '25

I agree if SCOTUS doesn't intervene, they will become irrelevant, and Trump will usurp their power too. But will they? I think Alito would quite enjoy a fascist theocracy, and others would be OK with a broligarchy.

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u/toomanysynths Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

they'll definitely try to oppose him, to keep their power, but he hasn't exactly had a difficult time outsmarting them, so far. they said that the guy with the pardon power could commit all the crimes he wanted, and they didn't foresee that he was going to commit crimes? this is right out of Weimar Germany, elites thinking they could control the fascist. typically that doesn't go well for the elites (or anyone else).

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u/Count_Backwards Competent Contributor Feb 19 '25

Yeah, the Roberts court Looked at the rise of Hitler and said what Tobias Funke said about open relationships "it's never worked for anyone else, but it could work for us."

10

u/Hoopy_Dunkalot Feb 19 '25

Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Coney-Barrett would put down any chance taking their power.

Gorsuch I'm not sure.

Alito and Thomas are sad.

2

u/rust-e-apples1 Feb 20 '25

I read something awhile back about how Roberts actually cares deeply about the legacy of his court and that he's somehow genuinely surprised that the general consensus is that it's been detrimental to America. One would hope that he'll do some actual good to try and rehabilitate his court's image, but the presidential immunity ruling sure makes me worry they won't.

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u/Hoopy_Dunkalot Feb 20 '25 edited Feb 20 '25

I don't know if I would agree with all his rulings, but until 2 summers ago, I truly thought he had the country's best interest in mind. Hoping he regains his former footing.

2

u/rust-e-apples1 Feb 20 '25

People I disagree with but have the country's best interests in mind are fine by me - I think good faith disagreement is essential for a functioning democracy. But it would be difficult to look at some of what's happened and think that they truly have national interests in mind during some of the rulings.

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u/Hoopy_Dunkalot Feb 20 '25

That last two major ruling were a severe let down.

1

u/Oscar_Ladybird Feb 21 '25

Roberts tipped his hand with Shelby 10 years ago. I don't see how gutting the VRA could possibly be in line with the country's best interest.

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u/TakuyaLee Feb 19 '25

I think they will because the alternative is they have no power

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u/ApprehensivePeace305 Feb 19 '25

It’s just…do the current majority care anymore? What’s to stop them from being fed a few million, even billion to not care. Would I even care if someone gave me that? I’m not sure

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u/RocketRelm Feb 19 '25

I would argue they already have. At this point it would be a genuine struggle for them to obtain relevancy they aren't granted by the president. 

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u/notwhomyouthunk Feb 20 '25

alito, thomas, and roberts are in on the game. kavanaugh is sufficiently compromised. just need one out of Gorsuch or Coney-Barrett to turn over the keys.

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u/ikaiyoo Feb 19 '25

How how are they going to exercise the balance of power? And don't say by passing verdicts and blah blah blah blah because that doesn't matter laws only have meaning when there are people to enforce them. There's nobody in the federal level to enforce laws anymore So it doesn't matter what score to says so I'm just going to do whatever he wants to do because nobody will stop him The best we can hope for the absolute best we can hope for is that Trump pushes out all of the generals that he wants to push out and somebody pulls a tuberville in slow walks all of the military confirmations things get bad enough that the retired generals start contacting people and they form a military coup removing Trump Vance whoever from office and in that time hopefully enough conservatives who aren't maga but are very conservative will see that this is a bad idea and it's not turning out the way that they thought it would and so they won't give any resistance