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.
I believe people like Roberts and Gorsuch (and maybe even to a lesser degree, Kavanaugh and Barrett) actually believed in their responsibility to uphold the Constitution. I think Gorsuch might actually still believe it.
And I don’t think I would say that Ketanji Brown Jackson, or Sonia Sotomayor (or former justices like Ginsburg) spent their lives “violently imposing control” on anyone.
And no, the existence of the state is not in and of itself a violent imposition of control.