A review of Chief Justice John Roberts' actions during the last Supreme Court session would seem to indicate that he has stopped attempting to rein in both his more rabidly conservative colleagues and chosen to go along with their far-right vision of America, according to an expert's analysis.
That is the opinion of Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern who claimed the jurist, once considered an institutionalist, now appears to be "taking the path of least resistance" by going along with Trump and avoiding blowback from the volatile former president once again headed to the White House.
"it’s easy to imagine an earlier version of the chief justice spending the next four years losing his grasp on the court’s direction and drawing Trump’s public ire. Today’s iteration of John Roberts need not fear this fate. His position of appeasement, if not outright capitulation, to a MAGA vision of the law is about to pay off in spades," he wrote.
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According to Stern, having forestalled future Trump attacks by being the guiding force behind the startling presidential immunity ruling that, in essence, gives current and former presidents freedom to do as they please, Roberts has set himself up for an easier session while making it look like he has regained control.
"At the dawn of Trump’s next term, Roberts will arguably hold more power than ever. He has reestablished himself as the leader of the court, the justice with the greatest influence over the most important opinions. The question now is how he’ll use that power in a second Trump term. Will there be a limit to what he’ll seek to allow from the second Trump administration?" Stern asked before suggesting, "How far will he and the rest of the court’s conservatives allow Trump to go? Even if no other conservative will stand athwart Trump, will the chief justice sound the alarm in dissent? Or will he rubber-stamp the White House’s most authoritarian ambitions? Roberts himself may not even know the answers yet. But his decision to take the path of least resistance to Trumpism over the past four years suggests that he will not pose an obstacle to it in the four years ahead."
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