feelingbluepolitics:

Where John Roberts Is Taking the Court

His decision in the census case may indicate a genuine renaissance of his judicial conscience.

The Atlantic

“I understand that Roberts is not a secret moderate. He’s a lifelong conservative with far-reaching legal goals of rolling back civil-rights, economic, and environmental gains. But if the chief justice is sick and tired of being treated like Francisco’s idiot intern, the possible ramifications are huge. If he were to begin taking account of facts—taking this administration at its word when it tells the world of its plans to punish Muslims, torment immigrants, disfranchise its opponents, cripple Congress, and silence its critics—then there may be more times when the chief says, in so many words: Stop lying. Do the job right or give it to someone who can.”

It’s a nice thought. And it may have some validity; although possibly not as envisioned in this article, potentially even more huge.

Roberts is that pre-trump, old school version of Republicons who, while just as socially pernicious, believes above all else in cloaking the malice of conservatism in plausible deniability. “Follow my contortions of the law!” could be Roberts’ motto.

This case made plausible deniability impossible, even for someone who long ago completely mastered the art and used it to debilitate the country’s voting democracy . Of course Roberts was trenchant in his disapproval.

Charges of conservative greed, hyper-partisanship, bigotry, misogyny, and racism are welcomed for the opportunity to make the Left look inappropriate. But even consummate skill was helpless in the face of this court record.

His frustration with little minds must be overwhelming at times. It has taken conservatives over eight years to follow the roadmap Roberts laid out so carefully when he “upheld” Obamacare in order to stage on tidier plastic grounds its ultimate assassination. As another smart conservative was clamoring two years after that 2012 decision:

“As we all know, two years ago, Chief Justice John Roberts changed the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate into a tax and thus rescued President Obama’s signature legislation. What you may not know is that with this slight of hand—or flick of the wrist—he actually sent Obamacare flying from the constitutional frying pan into the constitutional fire.”

The Obamacare "Tax" That Chief Justice Roberts Invented Is Still Unconstitutional

Tax bills have to originate in the House, but Obamacare began in the Senate.

Forbes

Sigh. Their mangled effort is just now crawling back up to him, and meanwhile their interminable slowness caused Roberts’ beloved party some backlash during the 2018 midterms.

Roberts’ frustration now must be unbearable. The citizenship question was a lost cause, more than likely, in terms of manufacturing a better pretext, although Roberts did leave open that possibility. But he already gave them the hyper-partisan gerrymandering free pass!

“Why can’t they see?,” he must moan into his pillow at nights, before he puts his smiling, so reasonable mask back in place for everyday wear.

With the hyper-partisan gerrymandering case, Roberts has given Republicons full permission to do whatever the hell they want with re-drawing districts, answerable to no one if they hold onto power just one more election, in 2020.

Here is the crux of the tension: Roberts believes in a pretense of legitimacy, because that legitimacy is what upholds his own role in this transformation of the country.

trump wants to stomp the Constitution into tattered shreds, in his own grab to reform the country in his name, under his power, with no one else to have a say. While both goals will destroy the country, the means pose a survival contest between trump and Roberts, and that may in fact make Roberts more willing to put on the brakes until trump is out of power.

Like everyone else, Roberts is facing a formidable adversary, with the Republicon party, William Barr, and possibly an infiltrated military lined up behind trump.

It’s a very interesting turn of events, with this citizenship question case, that its outcome may be an existential fight for both Democrats and Roberts, suddenly pushed onto the same side as trump tries to sweep away everything blocking the path of being able to appoint one of his family members as his successor one day.