The chief justice defends court’s impartiality after decisions on abortion, presidential immunity and voting rights

The chief justice defends court’s impartiality after decisions on abortion, presidential immunity and voting rights

US chief justice John Roberts has insisted supreme court judges are not “political actors” amid outrage over its recent decision undermining the Voting Right Act, and other moves that have benefited Donald Trump and his allies.

Roberts leads a court on which conservatives have held a six-justice majority since 2020, and handed down a series of decisions that have upended longstanding precedent and, in Trump’s second term, allowed many of his policies to take effect, at least temporarily.

Last week’s decision on the Voting Rights Act has greenlit a scramble by Republican-led states to enact new congressional maps that will break up districts drawn to elect Black lawmakers, who tend to be Democrats. That may amount to a major blow to the party’s long-term chances of controlling the US House of Representatives.

The court has also expanded use of a fast-track process known as the “shadow docket” to temporarily pause lower court rulings against the Trump administration, including his mass deportation policies and gutting of federal departments.

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
    210·
    2 days ago

    John Roberts is very much not the radical center.

    He’s squarely at the center of DC political opinion. The Third Way Coalition and the Bloombergcrats could not have designed a more appealing SCOTUS judge in a lab. He received wide bipartisan support during his confirmation and has been lauded by leaders in both parties on a routine basis.

    He’s a conservative operator through and through, but will sometimes throw the liberals a bone for optics

    You’re describing the entire Clinton wing of the liberal party.

    • 73ms@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      The more troubling turns are far more recent than his nomination so him having bipartisan support back then (as tended to be the standard) does nothing for this argument. I don’t believe for a second that the Democratic party is happy with the clear bias he has shown by pushing through anything the Republicans want and obstructing the Dems. Especially not when it’s Trump he’s enabling.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        1 day ago

        The more troubling turns are far more recent

        “No one could have predicted that a groomed acolyte of William Rehnquist would make a shitty SCOTUS judge” is some Democrat Lobbyist tier logic.