screengrab from https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/ee51e63a-ed08-11e8-8b47-bd0975fd6199

On Monday, an Obama appointed judge in San Francisco ruled that an emergency order issued by President Trump to stop the progress of several “caravans” of mostly Central American illegals into the United States could not be enforced.

This led to a rather predictable response from President Trump, a response that may have been overly direct but that was absolutely true.

This led to a response from Chief Justice John Roberts.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. defended the independence and integrity of the federal judiciary on Wednesday, rebuking President Trump for calling a judge who had ruled against his administration’s asylum policy “an Obama judge.”

The chief justice said that was a profound misunderstanding of the judicial role.

“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” he said in a statement. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”

While one can understand why Roberts wants to try to remove the Courts from the the political hurly-burly, one also has to recognize that the statement is unmitigated balderdash. Obviously, there are Obama judges on the bench. Obviously, the Ninth Circuit sees itself as the legal arm of the anti-Trump #Resistance. Their rulings on a range of issues, from the “travel ban” to DACA to sanctuary cities, have set previous processes on their head in order to obstruct actions by the administration that these judges object to.

And what is most glaring, is that Roberts chose the occasion of yet another in-your-face decision that obviously will not survive Supreme Court review to express his displeasure when he’s let other instances pass.

Chief Justice Roberts rebuked Trump for a comment he made abt judge’s decision on asylum I don’t recall the Chief attacking Obama when that Prez rebuked Alito during a State of the Union

— ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) November 21, 2018

This is what Grassley is referring to:

Before he began his attack on a Supreme Court decision not yet a week old, Mr. Obama added a few words that had not been in the prepared text. The new preface — “with all due deference to separation of powers” — seemed to acknowledge that he was aiming unusual rhetorical fire at several Supreme Court justices sitting right in front of him.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., one of the justices in the majority in the decision under attack, shook his head as he heard the president’s summary of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and he appeared to mouth the words “not true.”

In this case, where the intelligence, if not the integrity, of the Supreme Court was challenged before a wildly applauding audience of Democrats, Roberts had nothing to say.

It makes you wonder why this happened now and under these circumstances. Was Roberts taking action to try to remind everyone, judges included, that they aren’t on a team? Was he just playing to the cheap seats knowing that any criticism of Trump is good for several days of media and NeverTrump adulation? Or was this the unveiling of Anthony Kennedy 2.0?

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