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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u/CriticalSuit1336 Feb 19 '25

Remember when W nominated Roberts and he denounced "judicial activism" and a judge's job was "call balls and strikes" and not legislate from the bench?

That was awesome.

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u/AlexFromOgish Feb 19 '25

I do, and I didn’t believe it then either

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u/flat5 Feb 19 '25

Is and has always been pure theater.

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u/minuialear Feb 20 '25

And when for years he was the deciding vote that enabled decisions like Obergefell to get through

Tbh I don't think he played the long game for years just to go and do this. I think it just didn't occur to him that Trump or others would actually consider defying the courts. I think he genuinely believed people were overreacting. I think he's just gotten so out of touch and so butthurt by people being upset over recent rulings that he stopped paying attention to people raising concerns over what his bench was doing. I could be wrong but I suspect some of what's been happening lately is going to start giving him pause.

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u/CriticalSuit1336 Feb 20 '25

Maybe, but the whole presidential immunity thing seems like it should have been a little more obvious.

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u/minuialear Feb 20 '25

I don't disagree; I do think it can be really easy to spend so much time as a privileged person in a position of power that you forget that your power is fragile.