John Roberts doesn't have a problem with any of this

Donald Trump's kingly delusions predate his presidency, but there’s no question that those around him are feeding into his authoritarian fantasies, including the MAGA Supreme Court justices.

I wrote something for my day job that I wanted to share with all of you, given what’s been going on with Trump and his apparent defiance of lower court and Supreme Court orders over the last few weeks. In short: yes, I absolutely think Donald Trump is defying court rulings and has launched us into a deep constitutional crisis. But I also think that if you were to ask Chief Justice John Roberts his thoughts, he’d argue Trump is in compliance. Read on to find out why I think that! You can also read the whole thing here.

Donald Trump thinks of himself as a king. He has, in fact, declared himself to be one in all-caps on social media. His grandiose delusions predate his presidency, but there’s no question that those around him are feeding into his authoritarian fantasies – not just members of his cabinet and his political acolytes in Congress, but also the MAGA Supreme Court justices, led by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Chief Justice Roberts wants the public at large to think of him and the Court he oversees – to the extent they think of them at all – as a bastion of nonpartisanship, where he and his colleagues do nothing but call “balls and strikes,” like an honorable, apolitical umpire. This narrative Roberts crafted of himself is pretty clearly at odds with reality, the power he actually wields, and how he uses that power to help Trump engage in flagrantly unconstitutional behavior.

The reality is that the MAGA justices are just fine with Trump’s policies, and have no interest in reining in his abuses. In fact, their rulings helped create the crisis we find ourselves in today. Over the past decade, the Roberts Court has steadily dismantled the legal guardrails that once protected our democracy: gutting voting rights, undermining federal agencies, and allowing Trump to get away with his crimes. These weren’t neutral decisions – they were calculated moves from politicians in robes that opened the door to Trump’s authoritarianism and extreme conservative policies. Trump has gladly taken these rulings as proof that he has permission to ignore the constitution and the rule of law and impose his kingly fantasies on all of us.

Lately, this abdication of duty has had a devastating impact on those who have been swept up in Trump’s apparent “abduct first, ask questions later” policy. Since taking office, Trump and his administration have gone on a horrific spree of removals and deportations of immigrants, some of whom were here lawfully, to a deadly prison in El Salvador. In a country where due process still theoretically exists, these government-backed abductions of lawful residents – not to mention Trump’s subsequent comments to El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele that he should build more prisons to house “homegrowns” (i.e. American citizens) – should chill us all.

Even the Trump administration has admitted that they made an “error” in removing some of those who were caught up in their mass deportation scheme, as in the case of lawful Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The district court judge who initially heard Abrego Garcia’s case ordered his immediate return, but the Department of Justice, now headed by MAGA loyalists beholden only to Trump’s interests, appealed to the Supreme Court. In his majority ruling, Roberts wrote that the lower court had overreached by ordering Trump to “effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return, but that “the government should be prepared to share what it can” how they planned to "facilitate" his return.

If you’re thinking to yourself that it seems uniquely hellish to force a person who even Trump and his lackeys admit was wrongly removed from the United States to stay in an El Salvadoran prison for no reason while lawyers fight over the definition of the words “effectuate” and “facilitate,” well…you’re right. And this ruling, unsurprisingly to most who are familiar with Trump’s game, did not compel him to act. Abrego Garcia is still in an El Salvadoran prison. Commentators and legal experts are sounding the alarm that Trump’s refusal to comply with this Supreme Court order is not just lawless but firmly places us all in a constitutional crisis.

But I think if you were to ask Roberts himself whether or not Trump defied his order, he’d say no. A close read of his ruling in the Abrego Garcia case exposes quite a few loopholes. Again, he wrote, “the government should be prepared to share what it can” (emphasis added) with the lower court judge about Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. The next day, the Department of Justice filed a motion with the lower court judge that refused to provide any information, writing “Defendants are not in a position where they ‘can’ share any information requested by the Court,” pointedly putting quotes around the word “can” to indicate they were quoting from the Supreme Court’s order.

This is not (just) obnoxious lawyering – it’s establishing plausible deniability on both sides. Trump can continue to tear up the constitution and the rule of law while getting his lawyers to argue over the word “can,” and John Roberts can write rulings so vague that whatever Trump does in response can still be categorized, at least in his mind, as being in compliance. The problem is that no one else is falling for it. Trump is clearly flouting the law and making the Supreme Court look ridiculous and weak.

So why is Roberts doing this? Because he’s a massive coward who does not want to hold Trump accountable, for two clear reasons. One is that Roberts agrees with Trump as a matter of partisan policy. He may not like the means, but he sure does support the ends. The other goes back to Roberts’s very strong desire to be perceived as the nonpartisan umpire. He isn’t one, but he wants people to think he is. He doesn’t want to weigh in on The Question: if we’re in a constitutional crisis, what is the Supreme Court going to do about it? If it’s up to John Roberts, the answer will always be “nothing.”

Fortunately, it isn’t up to him. It’s up to all of us.

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