Summary
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance warned that Chief Justice John Roberts may reverse a key Supreme Court precedent to benefit Donald Trump.
Trump seeks to overturn Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, a 1930s ruling that limits presidential power to fire officials.
Vance argues Trump is trying to consolidate executive power and undermine the judiciary. She cited Roberts’ language in a past ruling granting ex-presidents broad immunity as an “ominous sign.”
The conservative court may prioritize politics over precedent.
Not sure I’m getting this right: is this John Roberts trying to backpedal on a vaguely related issue after he scotus-voted for the president’s immunity? A belated stirring of conscience?
No. The exact opposite, actually.
John Roberts is basically signaling he’s willing to vote in favor of the unitary executive theory, essentially finishing off what their previous ruling that gave Trump all-but-total immunity by saying that he also has the right to do what he wants and the other two branches have no authority to stop him.
At that point, Trump is a dictator. The judicial branch would be relegated to an advisory branch with no enforcement mechanism (and therefore, no force of law). Due to the previous ruling, Congress’s ability to give oversight to Trump (even if they wanted to, which they don’t), is already neutered since he can’t even be legally investigated. Further, Congress passing bills at all would be largely irrelevant. Even if Congress overrides the President’s veto, he’d still be able to effectively kill it anyway simply by refusing to execute it.
All those firings Trump and Musk have been doing? Perfectly legal. Impounding money that Congress has already earmarked? Perfectly legal. And Congress wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing about it. Any bills they pass would simply be glorified suggestions and requests that Trump can either choose to fulfill or just choose to ignore. You can pass all the “Saving Widows and Orphans Act” bills you’d like, but they won’t matter if Trump just refuses to release the money to fund them, which he would be able to do.