Chief Justice John Roberts hasn’t actually changed much during his tenure. Really, the only thing that has changed is his willingness to show everyone who he truly is and always has been. A GROOMED by The Federalist Society tool intended to re-write the Constitution into what hard core conservatives like Leonard Leo believes it should have been. Roberts has through a confluence of circumstances been able to make extraordinary strides towards Leo’s part Feudal Lord/part Fascist vision of America. Roberts has been in on this since the day Bush 43 nominated him BUT for years was concerned about his legacy. He had dreams of history venerating ‘his’ Court the way a handful of Chief Justices are highly regarded. Roberts has clearly abandoned all such pretense.
People have forgotten the normal way of things is that each year the Justices comb through hundreds (if not over a thousand sometimes) of appellate cases that raise Constitutional questions significant enough that SCOTUS should weigh in. Most don’t get considered. Time, as in the time it takes to read though a given case, hear oral arguments, review follow up briefs and write an opinion in a quite real and practical sense limits how many cases in which SCOTUS can ‘grant Cert” – as in hear the case.
Roberts’s Court after a few years took some flak for hearing notably fewer cases than SCOTUS had for decades. Still, on the first of October a new year begins for them and doesn’t ‘conclude’ until June 30th the following year. All the stuff I just mentioned. Have they sometimes heard a case on an expedited and/or emergency basis? Of course but it USED to be uncommon. At least during a current term things are pretty much out in the open.
However, there’s always been another way the Court has done business. Urgent matters that simply can’t wait do in fact come up during that hiatus between July 1 through Sept. 30 each year. In emergency situations the Court has always been able to take briefs and issue a ruling. In common terms it has had what’s called a Shadow Dockett. It used to be limited to very limited and specific matters but now due to Roberts it’s become the mechanism for SCOTUS to conduct the lion’s share of it’s business.
I should note that rulings from the Shadow Dockett are almost always unsigned and any ‘opinion’ written is short. Typical SCOTUS rulings are dozens or even up over a hundred pages long. Shadow Dockett rulings seldom take up more than a page or two. Sometimes not even a full single page is needed. Again I want to note it’s SUPPOSED to be for true emergencies. Trump however is a petulant spoiled child who wants what he wants and wants it NOW! What to him are laws and precedents and norms that prevent him from instant gratification are EMERGENCIES.
He goes running to SCOTUS which would tell ANY other President to piss off and not to bother them unless there’s an actual emergency. However what Trump wants happens to too often align with what The Federalist Society and even more extreme groups want. It only takes four Justices to grant Cert on any case be it regular term or Shadow Dockett and with six Federalist Society groomed appointees led by Roberts getting that is as easy as making a single phone call. From there it only takes Roberts rounding up one more vote and that’s that.
Even long held precedent with laws that are specific and ‘on point’ are getting overturned via the abuse of the Shadow Dockett. This latest case which you can read about here is from MSNBC. Trump wanted to fire someone. In this case it was FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter. He fired her ‘without cause’ we are told. Actually there WAS a cause. She was the lone Democrat on the panel and therefore not willing to surgically attach her lips to Trump’s fat butt. In his mind that makes firing her ‘totally’ justified.
The firing also happens to run counter to a specific federal law which has been upheld in court over time. So Slaughter sued to remain on the job. At the District and Appellate level the ruling was her firing was illegal. Naturally Trumpty went running to SCOTUS who will hear the matter in December. The issue in the meantime is that there was an injunction in place keeping her on the job. Not anymore. Roberts and his cronies lifted it so she’s now officially fired.
It’s a pretty clear indication Roberts intendeds to oversee gutting yet another long-held precedent to please Trump. Or perhaps more accurately the conservative dream of a “Unitary Executive”, an out-there version of Presidential powers that of course only exist when a Republican is in the White House. I’ll say this again – NO other President, not even a Republican would get what Roberts is again handing to Trump on a silver platter. Oops, I mean gold (plated) platter!
I want to emphasize something I mentioned earlier. Shadow Dockett rulings more often than not say nothing more than whether the petitioners request for relief was granted or denied. And typically unsigned. Well the clerk signs it but not individual Justices unless one or more write a short cliff-notes explanation. This is changing and once again we have someone speaking out and calling bullshit on this abuse of legal process:
“Our emergency docket should never be used, as it has been this year, to permit what our own precedent bars,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the three Democratic appointees. “Still more, it should not be used, as it also has been, to transfer government authority from Congress to the President, and thus to reshape the Nation’s separation of powers,” she wrote.
Well, as I said SCOTUS will hear a full airing of this case in December but I think we know how it’s going to go. As Justice Kagan says, they intend to transfer even more power from Congress to the President. Well, Trump at least. I still say if Trump were to choke on a hamberder or unmasticated hunk of burnt steak lacking enough ketchup lubricant to make it down his throat I truly doubt they hand Vance (or anyone else, and for damned sure not a Democrat) the kind of power they are eager to give to Trump.
I do know, I KNOW Roberts has engineered a breathtaking re-writing of the Constitution’s Separation of Powers that he would have done for ANY President but Trump. I can’t help but wonder about that astonishing exchange about SEAL Team Six during oral arguments of the immunity case. And wonder if shortly afterwards each of the six GOP appointees got (and their spouses and any adult kids too) “target packages” put together by Erik Prince who employs so many form Spec Ops people.
I also know that if a Democrat re-takes the White House in 2028 The Federalist Society will have a batch of cases cued up in the pipeline for SCOTUS to take up. Cases that will allow them to systematically strip away all the breathtaking King like power they’ve given to Trump. Count on it.
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The emergency docket should only be used for death row cases.