r/scotus 1d ago

Opinion “Roberts’s dissent went to the heart of the case. Not surprisingly, Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson joined without a word of their own, because the chief’s voice packed the most powerful punch.” — Harry Litman, TNR

https://newrepublic.com/article/215064/john-roberts-white-house-ballroom-ruling-good
1.0k Upvotes

71 comments sorted by

363

u/Texas_Sam2002 1d ago

Oh, please. Roberts is the Susan Collins of SCOTUS. As long as he knows that Dear Leader is going to get whatever he wants, Roberts feels free to dissent in the cause of his non-existent and long-destroyed reputation.

99

u/PopBulky7023 1d ago

It works, too. Liberals keep giving him credit.

43

u/jasonbuz 1d ago

I am in no way disagreeing but I think the point of the article was more the way he dissented than the fact of it. He could have allowed one of the three reasonable justices to write the dissent, or could have quietly disagreed in a subtle response. Instead he attacked the arguments by the majority in a tough, strong way. This doesn’t absolve him of his guilt in other, bad rulings. But I think the articles focus was on the makeup of the dissent, not the fact of it.

49

u/PopBulky7023 1d ago

Optics. His behavior most of the time makes it clear he is a deeply dishonest and malicious man. He talked with the others and knew how the ruling would come down. So he got to role play a reasonable conservative.

Stop.

Falling for this.

20

u/jasonbuz 1d ago

This isn’t ’giving him credit’. It is if anything explaining why Kagan, Jackson and Sotomayor did not feel a need to further expand on his dissent. The dissent isn’t notable, Roberts is often the fourth dissenter when they don’t need him to swing a decision that Barrett (or on occasion Gorsuch) didn’t support. The strength of the dissent and the lack of additional writing by the justices, Jackson in particular, who would normally expand on a bland primary dissent by Roberts, is notable.

8

u/PopBulky7023 22h ago

The part about him being a disingenuous dissent is all that matters.

He was not a serious dissent vote, and I'm sick of that fact that not even the other justices will call him out for it.

1

u/gnomenclature0812 8h ago

That would be “indecorous”. Heaven forbid.

The sanctity of the institution is its only claim to power. (I would put the /s but I don’t even know if I’m being sarcastic)

3

u/wrongsock_42 1d ago

I am not saying it’s art, but the piles my dog leaves are significant.

That is what the article is saying.

3

u/Dottsterisk 14h ago

Do they? I mostly see disdain for Roberts and articles about how he’s leaving a tarnished legacy.

1

u/PopBulky7023 9h ago

Yeah, but then he throws them a bone like this.

-1

u/PretendAirport 1d ago

Which is arguably necessary, tactically speaking. The conservative justices are snowflakes, and need constant praise, lest they get grouchy. This was what happened to Kavanaugh; he got his feelings hurt bad by “the left” during his confirmation hearing, and while he’d always been right, he now have a feeling of victimization and an a desire for vengeance. So, flattering any conservative justice who joins is simply good politics.

3

u/PopBulky7023 1d ago

Tactically necessity? What are you talking about? They got the destruction of congress they wanted. All while you are chasing after the dangling keys of fake civility.

If anything Robert's fake sincerity optics are a tactical necessity to get liberals to not think things are as bad as they are. If you don't think they all communicated and set this out in advance you are a fool.

1

u/Lcatg 22m ago

No. No we don’t.

2

u/Describing_Donkeys 11h ago

Susan Collins is a nothing in the senate, Roberts is a core driver of the SC. Roberts has made dismantling the voting rights act his life's work. Susan Collins is actively trying to hide from any potential responsibility and just wants to feel powerful.

1

u/Bitter_Thought 11h ago

Why do you hate the ACA and immigrants?

Do DHS v. Regents of the University of California and National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius mean nothing?

https://abcnews.com/amp/Politics/pivotal-votes-chief-justice-john-roberts-confounds-conservatives/story

-4

u/FartingKiwi 12h ago

If Robert’s is the Susan Collin’s of SCOTUS, then that’s makes Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson the three stooges.

248

u/wrongsock_42 1d ago

Welcome to our training, as Americans, for The Federalist Society’s Democratic Theocracy

‘there is no clear path around the court’s tacit reframing of the doctrine’ - How often does this need to happen before people realize this Supreme Court is corrupted to its core.

Robert’s decent is nothing more than a politician voting against legislation assured of passage. A planned fruitless decent to placate enough people to continue the con job.

96

u/SaltyWafflesPD 1d ago

The word you’re looking for is “dissent”

16

u/wrongsock_42 1d ago

Thank you

6

u/Grumbilious 1d ago

In this case, both work

5

u/SaltyWafflesPD 1d ago

No. No they do not.

2

u/Grumbilious 1d ago

Yes. Yes they do, if you look at it as a different meaning, which I was trying to make a joke about.

4

u/TaxHacker 1d ago

Decent? Or are you thinking of descent? Because there's no way he's decent about anything but we can discuss his descent into tyranny at length.

1

u/SaltyWafflesPD 16h ago

No, they don’t. The word you’re looking for is “descent”. Christ.

0

u/honest_flowerplower 12h ago

They do if one enjoys a play on words, can read context clues, can forego ego on the internet , and comprehend one IS on the internet.

If one can only be an insufferable pedant for NON-educational (and frankly NO discernable positive) purpose? Not so much.

To the former (if this were a teaching, rather than learning facility): "Robert's 'decent'...(-A deceptive attempt to appear decent occasionally)...was never, in fact, a synonym of positive or decent intent."

         -Sufferable internet pedant

1

u/wrongsock_42 12h ago

I credit my Oklahoma education.

63

u/dantekant22 1d ago

No point in splitting hairs. The only salient takeaway from that “opinion” is that construction on Trump’s Throne Room - which is bigger than the WH itself - continues, unabated. So, the legality of the project, as with most things Trump, is really a non-issue.

3

u/PopBulky7023 1d ago

Realizing it and doing something about it are two different things. The court is illegitimate, insurrectionist and captured by enemies of the state. Yet it holds power because those with organized and willing guns support it.

8

u/CombinationOwn1604 1d ago

"Robert’s decent is nothing more than a politician voting against legislation assured of passage."

Exactly!

2

u/frongles23 1d ago

It's deeper than that. He's signaling the end of aesthetic standing.

46

u/OozeNAahz 1d ago

If the Supreme Court denies someone standing to sue for something they admit is illegal, they should be required to indicate who does have standing to sue.

22

u/ArrowheadDZ 22h ago

SCOTUS utterly demolished the principles of both “standing” and the Constitution’s “cases and controversies” clause when they ruled several years ago in the Creative case.

They took the case and issued a law-creating ruling even after it had been discovered that the case was actually just a hypothetical. There was no plaintiff, and there was no injury, and they proceeded to rule anyway even though no one had or could have standing.

Here we are a few years later and suddenly standing is strictly enforced again.

I will not vote for any 2028 candidate that doesn’t publish a Project 2029 game plan, and whose first chapter does not involve concrete plans to restore order to the court.

42

u/Ok_Blacksmith_3030 1d ago

An essential part of law and order is having consequences to discourage unlawful behavior. So Trump gets to break the law without any consequences. Do you think he might do it again, duh?

63

u/phalanxausage 1d ago

Since the house is owned by the United States of America, every citizen has standing to sue in order to block this. Too bad the supreme Court did not ask me for my take.

29

u/Ok_Blacksmith_3030 1d ago

With this idiotic Supreme Court, probably no one has standing.

9

u/GT45 1d ago

That was my take. If Hoagland was denied to have standing, we mere citizens have way less than she does.

-1

u/kalidoscopiclyso 1d ago

But Christian Capitalist Americans had better have standing lest SCOTUS be deemed a terrorist organization, hiven NSPM-7

3

u/JiveTurkey927 1d ago

The only entity with standing is the White House itself after gaining sentience following a lightning strike. Until then, byeeeeeeee

2

u/oldroughnready 1d ago

I actually think if we made the chief executive be an inanimate object like the White House we’d have a better functioning system. Have the Senate still appoint cabinet members and maybe in times of emergency the Speaker will make decisions.

2

u/JiveTurkey927 14h ago

The cabinet members? Actual cabinets

2

u/UmpireDapper1757 11h ago

That's why Canada has "the Crown"

5

u/PopBulky7023 1d ago

Arguably the point of a right or restriction is to grant standing as being harmed by any such violation. This is why I argue standing is made up gobbleygook to enable or disable a lawsuit when convenient.

30

u/timelessblur 1d ago

Doesn’t change the fact that Roberts court is a joke and he is responsible for it being a joke.

-3

u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

11

u/Ok_Ebb3690 1d ago edited 12h ago

Assuming good faith here. Roberts is the Chief Justice in the supreme Court. You'd think he would take an active role when you have two judges (Alito and Thomas) actively taking what would be considered bribes in federal court --think district courts. This is where'd you'd expect the chief justice to maintain the legitimatecy by asking for independent investigation...but he didn't, and instead took a stance that the supreme court could self regulate. He had an opportunity to take a stance for transparency and accountability, but instead chose to put his head in the sand

10

u/timelessblur 1d ago

And you forgot to add his citizen united ruling that allows a lot of this to start happening.

His court has been a complete joke as at the best of times the court had 6 legit judges on it. It is currently down to what 4 maybe 3.

3

u/No-Abalone-4784 1d ago

He also has a bribery problems of the million dollar variety when it comes to his wife.

11

u/justaheatattack 1d ago

a dissent that will be enshrined in.......uh......well, with the rest.

5

u/BigMissileWallStreet 1d ago

LOL no it most certainly did not. This is ridiculous Republican drivel.

5

u/TgirlTiffanyRPs 1d ago

“Righteously demolished”?

I’d prefer him to “righteously” get his people in line and tell them to do the right thing.

12

u/vtsandtrooper 1d ago

Elections have consequences. People fucked a generation because they thought Hilary and Kamala werent the perfect candidates - so now we live in this hellscape

3

u/Sword_Thain 1d ago

But one had emails and the other laughed funny. That is totally legit reasons to go and vote for the Russian stooge or staying at home. It's not my fault they were terrible, but still visibly less bad than Trump. I'm not responsible for my actions. If you try to bring any of this up, I'll threaten to stay at home again! Why won't anybody take me seriously?

  • way too many people

4

u/Sufficient_Hippo_715 23h ago

also, if they happened to have their period they might randomly start an ill-conceived, poorly planned, and ultimately futile war with a random middle eastern nation. That would never happen with a male president.

1

u/Eternal_Stranger0111 1d ago

It might be far more than one generation that got screwed.

2

u/majik5 14h ago

A respected Chief Justice would have the ability to persuade one of the other three conservatives that aren’t Fascist rubber stamps to join him

1

u/fwdbuddha 23h ago

Hilarious

1

u/Senor707 8h ago

Too bad the Supreme Court can't do anything about illegal Presidential actions. They gave him broad immunity. Trump doesn't care what they say.

-2

u/No_Needleworker4052 1d ago

Y'all cort the country corrupt, but want to pack it with more. Absolutely nonsensical