Just weeks ago, I commented on how President Trump was making it impossible for Attorney General William Barr to do his bidding, despite Barr’s obvious interest in doing so. The problem was that Trump kept telling everyone what he should have been telling no one. In that case, it was that he wanted Barr to make a public show of indicting Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and other Democrats on all kinds of trumped-up charges.
Barr even resorted to going on Fox News to beg Trump, to no avail, to keep things on the down low. But Trump proved too stupid, petulant, and narcissistic to get that a conspiracy can’t work if the conspirator in chief is tweeting about it on social media; that is, when he isn’t blabbing about it on TV.
Now, proving that he’ll never learn, he is making it impossible for his Supreme Court picks to do his bidding, despite their obvious interest in doing so. The problem is that he keeps telling everyone what he should be telling no one. In this case, it is that he expects his three nominees to rule in his favor in every case challenging the presidential result, which even he clearly expects Biden to win.
President Trump has spent weeks making increasingly undisguised pleas to the Supreme Court to hand him the election. He has predicted the election will be decided by the courts (“This scam that the Democrats are pulling — it’s a scam — the scam will be before the United States Supreme Court”) and demanded that Amy Coney Barrett should be seated in time to make a favorable decision on his behalf.
If Sleepy Joe Biden is actually elected President, the 4 Justices (plus1) that helped make such a ridiculous win possible would be relegated to sitting on not only a heavily PACKED COURT, but probably a REVOLVING COURT as well. At least the many new Justices will be Radical Left!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2020
(Intelligencer, October 30, 2020)
Again, he’s too stupid, petulant, and narcissistic to get that this ham-handed version of working the refs (so publicly) can only backfire. Here are just three reasons why:
- Each of his picks will now be obliged to recuse from any such case to honor the judiciary’s ethical code against justices having even the appearance of conflict.
- Each of his picks will now be concerned that any ruling that helps Trump win re-election will hang like an albatross around their judicial necks for the rest of their tenure.
- All nine justices will now be hard-pressed to explain how ruling in Trump’s favor will not compromise the actual and apparent integrity of the Supreme Court.
Not to mention that all nine justices will be loath to hand Trump this 2020 election, aping the way the Court handed George W. Bush the 2000 election. Because, if they do, they know historians would judge them far more harshly. In fact, they would probably end up in the rogues gallery alongside the infamous justices who ruled in
- Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) that rights and freedoms codified in the US Constitution do not apply to Blacks;
- Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that segregation is legal no matter how separate and unequal the public accommodations and facilities; and
- Korematsu v. United States (1944) that it is okay for the government to lock all Japanese citizens in internment camps based on the mere suspicion of potential treason.
This is why I fully expect each of them to do what it finally dawned on Barr to do: ignore Trump and conduct themselves in ways that limit the stain on their professional reputation, which his public exhortations are bound to cause.
Never mind that Trump clearly has no clue that, unlike Republicans who depend on his cult for political support, Supreme Court justices have life tenure. This enables them to give him the proverbial middle finger with impunity. I expect them to rule in each case accordingly.
Related commentaries:
William Barr… Coney Barrett…
Legacy Note: With over 5,600 posts spanning 20 years, I am easily the most prolific blogger on the most eclectic array of topics on the web. That makes The iPINIONS Journal an unparalleled archive of informed political and cultural commentary. Visit the ARCHIVES section in the sidebar or search by topic. You won’t find a more consistent, independent voice on world affairs.