Chief Justice Roberts Hands Trump the Keys to Power

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Chief Justice Roberts Hands Trump the Keys to Power

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/chief-justice-roberts-hands-trump-the-keys-to-power/ar-AA1BNjQS?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=40a321f161454ea085e851da1bc82dbc&ei=20

Story by Keith Raffel • 23h • 4 min read


Chief Justice Roberts Hands Trump the Keys to Power
© Library of Congress

Chief Justice John Roberts recently reprimanded Donald Trump for his irresponsible behavior. That's like a parent scolding their 10-year-old son for reckless driving after tossing him the car keys.

So, what am I accusing Roberts of?

Of doing more than just about anyone else in clearing the road for Trump's rise to power and his illegal actions once in the White House. The bill of particulars could be much longer, but let's just look at four counts.


First, there's the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Committee. In that case, Roberts cast the deciding vote to reverse a century of precedent by authorizing corporations, other outside groups and wealthy donors to spend unlimited sums on elections. Just days after the decision, President Barack Obama warned the decision "will open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections." Unlimited contributions have indeed tilted the American electoral process toward the interests of corporations and the rich. Today, the largest contributor to Trump's 2024 campaign, Elon Musk, is playing an unprecedented role in the current administration.

Second, in 2013, Roberts assigned himself to write the majority opinion in Shelby County v. Holder, which threw out a key section of the Voting Rights Act. A 2024 article in the Journal of Political Economy found evidence that the Shelby County holding decreased turnout of minority voters due to "voter suppression tactics that have occurred in the absence of federal oversight." As two professors wrote in an American Economic Association paper: "Our findings suggest that perhaps Chief Justice Roberts should be slightly less optimistic about the state of democratic equality in the South."
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