Chief Justice Trump?

When in 2016 the Democrats neared the end of the convention that nominated Hillary Clinton for president, they gave the stage to a gold star father, Khizr Khan. Mr. Khan’s remarks became the most memorable of the whole Democratic campaign. Mr. Khan asked: “Donald Trump, you are asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution?”The jibe was met with a thunderous ovation, but nine years later has worn thin. For it turns out that President Trump has not-so-quietly racked up at the Supreme Court a startling record of constitutional victories. They include the case just decided, Trump v. CASA, in which the Nine have started curbing the so-called universal injunctions by which federal judges are tying up Mr. Trump’s agenda in the lower courts.That has taken Mr. Trump to the Supreme Court, either on his own initiative or that of those challenging him, so many times it’s hard to tally. This dwarfs the number of challenges faced at the Supreme Court by, say, Presidents Biden, Obama, George W. Bush, or Clinton. What’s so astounding about this is the degree to which Mr. Trump is being vindicated in case after case, despite the derision directed his way by the Democrats.The New York Times has an illuminating dispatch from Adam Liptak in respect of Mr. Trump’s record so far. It calls the just ended Supreme Court term, fueled by emergency rulings, “triumphant” for Mr. Trump. It reckons that in the first 20 weeks of Mr. Trump’s second term, the administration filed 19 emergency applications, “the same number the Biden administration filed over four years.”The Times compiled one tally of 14 “Trump-related emergency docket cases since January.” In 11 of those cases, the Times reckons, the court ruled in favor of the Trump administration. They covered such issues as, to name but a few, birthright citizenship, freedom of information act requests for DOGE material, and removal of immigrants via the Alien Enemies Act. Mr. Trump’s record is quite something.Plus, too, there are the merits cases, where Mr. Trump has won major victories. In his first term, the Supreme Court eventually allowed him to proceed with curbing immigration from some Muslim-majority countries. More recently Mr. Trump won a unanimous decision in the disqualification case that so many law professors — and the Colorado supreme court— insisted was “self-executing” under the 14th Amendment. Mr. Trump’s signature victory before the Nine could be in the case of Trump v. United States, which turned on the question of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution. President Biden’s Department of Justice took the position that presidents are largely fair game for prosecutions. A District of Columbia district court judge and the District of Columbia United States Appeals Circuit agreed that presidents enjoyed but limited immunity. The Supreme Court, though, by a six-to-three vote, ruled that official presidential acts are presumptively immune from criminal prosecution, and that some acts that are in the “conclusive and preclusive” authority of the president are absolutely immune. That was a vindication — partial at least, as unofficial presidential acts can still be prosecuted — of the theories of the presidency and separated powers proffered by Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump’s docket at the state level could evolve into an impressive record. He and his co-defendants have secured the disqualification of the district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis, from a racketeering prosecution that threatened prison. A New York appellate court appears skeptical of the $500 million civil fraud verdict against Mr. Trump and his family. And Mr. Trump’s hush money convictions are under appeal to the Second Circuit. We don’t want to make too much of all this, but neither are we inclined to let it go without comment. The Trump administration going back to the first term and moving forward has been accruing a record that is getting ever harder to mock. Nor is it just that three of the Supreme Court justices are nominees of Mr. Trump. Some of these victories have pulled in liberals, too. It’s starting to look as if someone has read the Constitution.

Chief Justice Trump?

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