Only one person has the power to stop Donald Trump’s dangerous quest to get the judicial system to overturn the presidential election. That is the chief justice of the United States.
I am begging you, Chief Justice John Roberts. Please do America a favor and tell Trump to go somewhere and sit down.
Perhaps Roberts thought the two-line order the Supreme Court issued Tuesday in response to the frivolous lawsuit brought by Pennsylvania Republicans attempting to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in that state would get the point across.
“The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the high court wrote without a noted dissent from the three Trump-appointed justices he thought were solidly in his pocket.
But that wasn’t enough. Trump doesn’t recognize subtlety.
While presiding over Trump’s Senate impeachment trial in January, Roberts learned a lot about how Trump manages to weasel his way out of tight or embarrassing situations. Roberts should have known that Trump wouldn’t think the order applied to him.
Trump blew off the Supreme Court’s rejection, saying that his legal team had nothing to do with the Pennsylvania lawsuit, so the order doesn’t reflect on his efforts to overturn the election.
Trump has, however, thrown his support behind another far-fetched lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleging that four states which Biden won skewed election results by enacting unlawful changes to their voting laws to expand access during COVID-19.
Trump called the case against the battleground states of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan “very strong” and suggested that his campaign would join in along with several other states.
“We will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.
Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia later filed a brief supporting the effort.
Roberts needs to shut this mess down immediately. He could do it with a simple, pointed statement — in all caps.
“DONALD TRUMP, YOU LOST THE ELECTION. THERE WAS NO WIDESPREAD VOTER FRAUD. JOE BIDEN WON FAIR AND SQUARE!”
Of course, the chief justice would state the case for dismissing the lawsuit more eloquently than I. But Roberts needs to let Trump know plainly that these ridiculous, unsubstantiated lawsuits brought by Rudy Giuliani and other Republicans trying to get in Trump’s good graces are rubbish.
No respectful judge sitting on a bench anywhere in America would give credence to Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud and certainly not the highest court in the land.
It is abundantly clear that not even the most conservative judges are willing to undo the results of a fair national election to allow a president who wants to be a dictator to get closer to his goal.
The idea of disenfranchising millions of Americans, most of them African Americans, seems appalling to them. They want no part of it.
Some have made that clear. In late November, a conservative three-member U.S. federal appeals court panel in Pennsylvania unanimously agreed to dismiss the Trump campaign’s effort to stop the state from certifying election results.
Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee, wrote the opinion stating that the campaign’s claims have no merit. But he went further.
“Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so,” Bibas wrote. “Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
America needs Roberts to say loud and clear that the election was not rigged.
It’s not that far-fetched to suggest that Roberts might want to issue a scathing public rebuke of Trump. Think back to the impeachment trial.
It was heartbreaking to watch the chief justice of the United States rendered so helpless. The Constitution placed him at the helm of the most significant case a chief justice could ever hear, but it did not grant him power to participate.
It made the highest jurist in America appear meek and vulnerable. But he also seemed more human.
Day after day, we watched him sitting on the bench, fidgeting with his hands and squirming in his seat as lawyers and lawmakers stated their case.
He appeared more like us than ever — a person with feelings, opinions and the right to think whatever he chose about whether Trump obstructed justice or otherwise broke the law.
Inevitably, Roberts would have his day in court — the Supreme Court. That likely has been one of Trump’s greatest fears, and the reason he rushed to appoint Amy Coney Barrett as a tiebreaker should his election fraud case come before the court.
I don’t always agree with Roberts’ decisions, but I think he is a brilliant and thorough jurist who bases each decision on the law. No doubt, any cases that involved Trump’s reelection would be met with the same due process.
But there is another problem — the human issue.
After weeks of testimony at the impeachment trial, Roberts cannot un-hear all the things he heard. He cannot un-know the damaging things he learned. And because he is human, every bit of that information is tucked away in his head.
As much as Roberts might try to keep it at bay, tidbits trickle into his judgment regarding Trump and could find its way into a ruling. That’s the problem with being human.
So, when the Texas lawsuit appears on the desk of the justices, all of them should deny it a hearing just as they did the Pennsylvania case. But this time, Roberts needs to speak up and all the other justices should sign their name in agreement.
“DONALD TRUMP, IT’S OVER. AMERICA IS MOVING ON AND SO SHOULD YOU!”
