I suppose that many / most of you know examples of sentences by judges that have a political bias. The most common example is judges ruling about climate change, which is – by nature – a global rather than a national event. Supreme Courts appear to recognise such a political – and non–scientific – bias.
Donald Trump changed the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court (Scotus) to overcome such unwelcome rulings. Hence, more conservative judges. Some other countries followed his deeds (eg, Poland). Escalating such unwelcome rulings (towards Scotus) is cumbersome and time-consuming.
Now, the White House claims that American judges are “balking” (against Trump’s executive orders) and provoking a “constitutional crisis” (eg, AP). In my view, this is a classic example of Trump applying reverse psychology by blaming anyone but himself. His voters might even believe him.
“In the weeks since Donald Trump returned to office, Democrats and legal scholars have warned that he’s provoking a constitutional crisis by trying to expand his power and ignore laws that stand in his way. On Wednesday, the White House had a new response to that. It’s not the president who is causing the problem, said press secretary Karoline Leavitt, it’s the judges who are blocking some of his agenda by saying it’s illegal.”
Source: Associated Press, 13 February 2025
Things are much worse than the above, considering recent statements by Vice President J.D. Vance:
“Vice President J.D. Vance argued Sunday that federal courts “aren’t allowed” to limit the president’s “legitimate power,” after a judge temporarily blocked Elon Musk and other political appointees from accessing sensitive data and payment systems at the Treasury Department.”
Source: the National Memo, 11 February 2025
In my view, it’s getting increasing likely that the U.S. Supreme Court must – and will – put boundaries upon Trump’s legitimate power unless these 9 Americans do not mind eroding their own power. I sincerely doubt that and hope they will recall their constitutional duties – in due time.
“J.D. Vance is an embarrassment to the law school that I attended,” Conway said. “But the fact of the matter is, he’s telling us something that we should have already known, and last week I said it. They are not going to obey court orders, they have decided that they are going to push the boundaries on executive power by basically infringing on the Article 1 power of Congress, and they are violating statutory, they’re violating the text of the Constitution in the birthright citizenship issue.”
An interesting quote by “American lawyer and activist” George Conway (b.1963)
The Power (1990) by SNAP!
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Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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