Adrastos, Fog Of History, Legal Docket, Political Crack, Supreme Court, The Darnold

Trump Found His Roy Cohn

In 2018 when the Convicted Insult Comedian was feeling agitated over the Mueller probe, he asked then White House counsel Don McGahn, “Where’s my Roy Cohn?”

Trump has gone through a string of lawyers since then. This is an incomplete list:

Ty Cobb was not his Roy Cohn, but he has a great mustache.

Rudy Giuliani was not his Roy Cohn; he was his drunken teevee lawyer.

The Cheese was not his Roy Cohn. I only included him because he has a cool nickname.

Alina Habba was not his Roy Cohn, she’s just a sleazy parking lot lawyer from Jersey.

Todd Blanche was not his Roy Cohn even though he hasn’t been fired after losing the porn star hush money election interference case.

Emil Bove was not his Roy Cohn even though his receding hairline is similar to that of the McCarthy henchman.

In 2024, Trump found his Roy Cohn in an unlikely place: The Supreme Court.

John Roberts *is* Trump’s new Roy Cohn.

Is that hyperbolic? Yes. But so was Roberts’ opinion in Trump v. United States. It focused on hypothetical threats posed to the country by a president hypothetically persecuted by his successor instead of focusing on the actual actions of the corrupt former president whose case was before the court.

I must admit to being a bit shocked by yesterday’s dreadful opinion. I expected a 7-2 vote with Alito and Thomas dissenting. I’ve long thought of John Roberts as an institutionalist, so I thought he’d do the right thing on this case and issue a narrow ruling against Trump. That’s what a conservative institutionalist would have done.

Repeat after me: John Roberts is NOT a conservative neither are Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh. I still have some hope for Amy Coney Barrett after her concurring opinion, but she’s no Sandra Day O’Connor who may have been the last old school conservative Supreme.

The only good thing that happened yesterday was that the Morning Memo guy David Kurtz joined Team Don’t Call Them Conservatives. I hope more legal analysts and reporters will join us. Ain’t nothing conservative about the Federalist Society creeps who populate the current court.

Conservative jurists rule as narrowly as possible. The Warren Court was often denounced for acting like a super legislature. The Roberts Court has topped that by being  a super stupid legislature.

Conservative jurists believe in judicial modesty. Judicial immodesty characterizes the Roberts Court. Try and name a past justice as arrogant as Sam the Sham Alito. In a word: Impossible.

Conservative jurists respect precedent. The Roberts Court has now explicitly overruled Roe and Chevron and implicitly overruled the 1974 Nixon tapes case.

Repeat after me: Don’t call them conservatives. They’re radicals in robes.

After yesterday’s absolutely appalling ruling, I posted this on social media;

Cassandra suggested Citizen’s United as number 6. I would add the case that overruled Chevron, Loper-Bright as number 7. Who wrote that opinion? Trump’s new Roy Cohn, Chief Justice John Roberts. How’s that for a disgusting state of affairs? In fact, the Roberts Court is responsible for 4 of this top 7 list.

Perhaps the worst thing about Trump v. United States is that it’s simultaneously overbroad and vague. In many instances it’s unclear how it will be applied. The ruling not only concentrates more power in the judiciary, but it will also lead to fishing expeditions as to what are unofficial and official acts.

This dangerous ruling reminds me of what Justice Robert Jackson said in his Korematsu dissent:

The principle then lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.”

In this instance, the loaded weapon is a potential Trump return to the White House after an imperial SCOTUS has crowned him king. Joe Biden does not want the power given the presidency by the Roberts Court. The Kaiser of Chaos is ready to abuse those powers in a way that will make George Washington roll over in his grave.

Donald Trump found his Roy Cohn. John Roberts can go fuck himself.

The Supreme Court is on the ballot. Vote accordingly.

Repeat after me: Vote against the crook, it’s important.

I’m not a Billy Joel fan but what’s not to love about a song that rhymes Roy Cohn with Juan Peron?

3 thoughts on “Trump Found His Roy Cohn”

  1. Didn’t Marbury give the scotus the power to do all this crap, essentially crowning themselves “interpreters of the constitution?

    1. It was limited to the facts of that case per the insistence of Justice O’Connor.

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