On most days, the Supreme Court seems to be the only properly functioning institution in Washington — maybe even in the country.
When U.S. District Judge James Boasberg intervened in the Trump administration’s efforts to deport illegal Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador using the Alien Enemies Act, the Make America Great Again movement erupted in anger. It is somewhat understandable. Partisan lower court judges incessantly impede the president from engaging in legitimate executive branch functions. And most of these efforts are transparently partisan.
Not all the time, though. The best prescription for this kind of attack on order is for Congress to limit the power of lower courts or impeach judges who abuse their power. However, since Congress can barely pass a budget, this is unlikely to happen, either.
In any event, Boasberg’s order sparked the MAGA burn-it-all-down faction to argue that courts should be ignored. One of the more popular sentiments underpinning this outlook rests on the notion that President Donald Trump is imbued with a magical “mandate” that allows him to fulfill campaign promises. That’s not how it works. For one thing, presidents always make promises far beyond the scope of their power. For another, Trump, who vastly overestimates his popularity, could have won every vote in the entire country, and he still doesn’t get to break the law.
MAGA influencers also began leaning into the claim that “unelected” judges didn’t have the power to stand in the way of the people. They very much do. Federal judges are unelected so that they will be immune from political pressures.
In any event, Trump didn’t ignore the court or cause the constitutional crisis the Left promised was coming. Democratic presidents typically don’t ignore Supreme Court decisions, either; they merely slightly tweak their unconstitutional edicts to keep them afloat.
In this case, it seems that both sides had a point. The high court held that the proper way to challenge government detention was through a habeas corpus claim, not an Administrative Procedures Act claim. Since habeas cases must be heard in the same district where the person is being held, Boasberg had no jurisdiction over the case.
But the court also rejected Trump’s claim that his use of the Alien Enemies Act was not reviewable by federal courts, and indeed, a federal court in Texas has since halted all deportations of illegal immigrants pursuant to the AEA.
Now, Trump’s defenders argued that the president had a complete victory. But guess what, even if that was the case, every president claims they are acting constitutionally. Former President Joe Biden claimed that he could “forgive” loans with a pen, and former President Barack Obama claimed that he could punish nuns who didn’t obey his edicts. That’s why we adjudicate these issues.
The Supreme Court also decided this week the Trump administration should try to “facilitate” the release of an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, whom the White House deported while alleging he’s in the MS-13 gang. The decision was 9-0.
Rest assured, not one of the Democrats who has spent the past four years delegitimizing the court as a partisan Star Chamber will say that the originalists generally take principled, rather than partisan, stands. The Left has spent hundreds of millions of dollars delegitimizing the court and judicial system, smearing justices as rapists, unhinged religious fanatics, and puppets of oligarchs. Leftists fund journalistic fronts such as ProPublica to create fake investigatory pieces — shared across establishment media — adorned with the vocabulary of journalism and hazy snapshots of justices meant to insinuate some shocking corruption is afoot.
Senate Democrats grab the stories they created and push for “ethics reforms” to further slander justices with innuendo. The Left then unleashes astroturf campaigns and protests at the homes of judges to try and intimidate them. There has never been any evidence that any justices have altered their judicial philosophy or approach for personal benefit, unlike, say, those in Congress.
Thankfully, though, it is also one of the most resilient institutions in political life.
Critics like to point out that the founders didn’t anticipate the courts having this much power. True. But the state of affairs is an organic reaction to the lawlessness of the other two branches. The Supreme Court, not anyone else, salvaged a semblance of Republican order over the past two decades.
The problem is that this rickety arrangement can’t hold forever — or even much longer.
The modern president sits at a big desk, signing edicts like a pro tempore King to the cheers of his subjects at court. Americans are only irked by this regal spectacle when their favored leader is out of power. Many of them, let’s face it, don’t care or comprehend how the American government is meant to work.
And the blame, perhaps most of it, falls on Congress, which is increasingly inhabited by partisan sycophants and cowards who spend their time taking orders or handing basic constitutional responsibilities to the King.
The judicial branch has upheld our rights with Citizens United, Janus, and numerous cases regarding religious and economic freedom in recent years. There’s understandable frustration on the Right that left-wing justices rubberstamp most Democratic Party positions while “conservative” justices operate using philosophical coherence that sometimes puts them against short-term Republican needs.
THERE IS NO ECONOMIC EMERGENCY
We can understand the frustration with the long history of GOP judicial nominees going native — former Justices John Paul Stevens and David Souter come to mind. And there is frustration with Chief Justice John Roberts, who not only rewrote Obamacare to make it legal but is constantly triangulating his positions. Then again, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who has now become the target of MAGA ire, doesn’t deserve it. To this point, she is an adherent to procedure. We should appreciate consistent, principled stands even if the results do not always work out how we wish.
In the end, this Court might be imperfect, but it is infinitely superior to the alternative.
