Open Letter: Chief Justice Roberts

Dear Chief Justice Roberts:

Anyone who has lived in the world knows that there are rules about dealing with bullies. Never turn your back in a fight. Never back down because it will make things worse. The bully will keep poking until someone pushes back, and then the bully deflates like a tire with a nail.

I bet you thought you were the nail. Donald Trump’s screed against Judge James E. Boasberg on the unlawful deportation of Venezuelan immigrants was a scurrilous example of unprincipled conduct. I’m certain that presidents have quietly cursed out our judges. Can you imagine what Nixon said about Chief Justice Burger? Can you imagine how Clinton mocked Chief Justice Rehnquist when he walked into Congress with his gold lame sleeve bands?

But Donald Trump’s rant was something else: a public assault against the dignity of the courts, their co-equal importance in the governance of the nation, their special function as interpreters of the law. That’s what he meant by “radical left lunatic.” It immediately triggered a call to impeach Boasberg.

Along with others, I was amused by your response. I think you thought that these were normal times, that a rebuke of this president and his minions would be sufficient, that civilized language would turn back his fusillade. After all, he had thanked you in the most public way for the many favors that you have done for his presidency. Your respectful statement about the appellate process and historical precedent was very much in keeping with the language of our system. It was also pathetically unequal to the task.

The problem is that Donald Trump is not a civilized man, but a schoolyard bully in the middle of his moment. The proof is that he responded with brutal indifference, as if you hadn’t spoken at all. That is likely to be his tone going forward, as the court recedes in the functioning of the nation.

The other problem, of course, is that you helped to make him. When you argued for a president’s presumptive immunity in the discharge of his official powers, you created a monstrous perversion of our national understanding. Justice Sotomayor had it exactly right. The court led by you in Trump v. The United States created a “law-free zone” around the president. That is never what our country has imagined.

So if you are feeling stung by our President’s disrespect, please know that, in the view of this citizen, you are the author of your own humiliation. Your legacy, if you have one, will be the unraveling of a system which has served us well for almost three centuries. If it had to end, it didn’t need to be this: a nation whose courts were compromised by a Chief Justice who could not see the threat before him.