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| Ralph Bristol |
Washington Post: One narrative about this Supreme Court is that it is subservient to Trump. Now the court has frustrated his signature initiative. Last year it also blocked his deportations without due process to El Salvador and ruled against his deployment of the National Guard in Illinois. This decision was too close, but it underscores that the Supreme Court remains independent. The separation of powers held. If only Congress would also fulfill its role as forcefully.
Wall Street Journal: The tariff law ruling also gives the lie to the Democratic charge that the current Court is a rubber stamp for Mr. Trump. The Court has now shown it is willing to block abuses of executive power by Presidents of both parties. This is exactly what the Constitution calls on the Justices to do.
The court’s demonstration of independence won’t stop Democrats from claiming otherwise the next time it rules in Trump’s favor, just like their rulings for him in the past didn’t stop Trump from saying he is “ashamed” of the justices who ruled against him this time.
People don’t like to lose, and politicians tend to be disingenuous in their losses. They have a First Amendment right to be so, but those of us who purport to be watchdogs of the government have an obligation to acknowledge when one of the branches of government does it job the way the Constitution mandates, regardless of our positions on the underlying policies in question.
The last three presidents have, even more than most before them, tried to expand the powers of the executive branch. They met little opposition from a largely dysfunctional Congress. It has been up to others to challenge the president’s attempts at extra-constitutional powers and they have not always been successful, but the court has repeatedly ruled against presidents of both major political parties in cases that could have opened the door to a runaway autocracy, marking the end of the great American experiment.
The U.S. Constitution has been the basis of experiments with various forms of democracy around the world. Our founders created a model that has been copied by every country that has tried to choose a democratic form of republic over an autocracy or a theocracy. The main ingredient of that model is a separation of powers that gives most of the important policy-making powers to Congress, a big, diverse, body of representatives of the people who are charged with the duty of taking multiple, divergent, opposing opinions on critical issues and forming policy and laws by which we all must live.
It was a difficult job when we were a less diverse country. It has become a nearly impossible job in the 21st century, when our diversity has rendered our Congress dysfunctional. Not only can Republicans and Democrats not agree on anything, but neither Republicans nor Democrats are anything like a unified body, so even a one-party Congress has trouble passing any significant legislation, adding to the frustration of presidents, who respond by trying even harder to expand the powers of the executive branch.
Who can blame them?
The Supreme Court – that’s who – because it’s their job – and at least one branch of government is still largely doing the job it was established to do. And so, to them, today, I say “thank you.”
Ralph Bristol is the former long-time morning talk radio host broadcasting on Supertalk 99.7 WTN. He was one of the less provocative and bombastic of conservative radio personalities, more thoughtful and grounded in conservative ideas. He left talk radio in 2018 and retired. He lives in Nashville.
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