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Supreme Court and especially John Roberts have gone full MAGA [1]
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Date: 2025-09-09
There are two very disturbing court rulings recently. One, the Supreme Court told ICE to go ahead and engage in racial profiling in detaining people. Two, John Roberts (acting alone) said that, for now, a Democratic FTC Commissioner that Trump has fired should remain fired, despite previous Supreme Court rulings. More below.
Regarding racial profiling. ICE was literally confronting people who were just hanging out at Home Depot. These were day laborers, looking for work. Day laborers are sometimes in the country illegally, so ICE felt free to detain them. Speaking Spanish was deemed as another good reason to detain people. According to the Washington Post (link below):
“U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, a Biden appointee, found there was a “mountain of evidence” that authorities were conducting unlawful stops targeting low-wage workers at public locations at least in part based on their apparent ethnicity.”
“Frimpong enjoined the government from conducting raids based on four factors alone or in combination: race, speaking Spanish or accented English, presence in certain locations and occupation. The decision was later upheld by an appeals court.” In other words, no racial profiling based on these four factors.
(By the way, this kind of action by ICE, ruled illegal by Judge Frimpong and an appeals court, was what sparked massive protests against ICE which led, in turn, to Trump sending the National Guard into LA.)
According to the Washington Post (same article):
“A divided Supreme Court on Monday lifted a ruling by a lower-court judge who placed limits on immigration raids in the Los Angeles area after finding federal agents were indiscriminately targeting people based on race and other factors.”
“The justices sided with the Trump administration, which argued that a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge in California was hampering its ability to crack down on illegal migration and that the stops by authorities were not unlawful.” In other words, a green light for racial profiling.
(snip)
“The court’s three liberal justices sharply dissented.”
“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the dissent. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”
Source:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/08/supreme-court-lifts-limits-immigration-raids-los-angeles-area/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert
Regarding the removal of an FTC Commissioner, President Donald Trump removed Rebecca Slaughter, a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, without cause. According to The New Republic (source below):
“Since the FTC’s establishment in 1914, Congress has prohibited presidents from firing FTC commissioners except “for cause,” a term that in this case meant “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
“Slaughter does not stand accused of any wrongdoing.”
(snip)
“When Trump claimed to order Slaughter’s dismissal earlier this spring, she filed a lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia to challenge her ouster. A federal district court judge issued a temporary restraining order to block her removal, and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it a few months later. The courts cited both federal law and Supreme Court precedent—namely, the landmark 1935 case Humphrey’s Executor v. United States.
In Humphrey’s Executor, the Supreme Court recognized an exception to the president’s general power to fire top-level federal officials at will. When Congress created agencies that wielded “quasi-legislative” or “quasi-judicial” power, the court reasoned, it did not violate the separation of powers for Congress to prohibit presidents from firing the heads of those agencies except for cause.
Earlier in the same article:
“Chief Justice John Roberts stayed a lower court order on Monday that had prevented President Donald Trump from removing Rebecca Slaughter, a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, without cause. His administrative stay was done solely through his own authority as a circuit justice—more on that later—and without the input of any other justices.”
The “more later” explains that Supreme Court Justices have the authority to make emergency rulings without consulting the other Justices. For example, if someone is going to be executed at 11:00 pm and a lawyer makes an appeal at 10:00 pm, a Supreme Court Justice might not have time to confer with the other Justices. Putting a “stay” on an order preventing Trump from removing an FTC Commissioner does not have the same urgency. Nevertheless, Roberts put a “stay” on the order preventing Trump from removing the Commissioner. There is no indication that he plans to consult the other eight Justices. He just did it himself, in spite of 90 years of precedent.
https://newrepublic.com/article/200171/john-roberts-defies-supreme-court?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tnr_daily
In an unrelated case:
“A Michigan judge threw out charges Tuesday against Republicans who claimed to be presidential electors for Donald Trump in a state he lost in the 2020 election.”
(snip)
“A month after Trump lost the 2020 race, his supporters gathered in Michigan and some other states Joe Biden won and signed documents claiming they were casting the state’s electoral votes for Trump. That paperwork was forwarded to the National Archives and used to argue that Congress should certify Trump as the winner or withhold certification while the results were reviewed. Those false claims fueled the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.”
(snip)
Why?
“At a hearing Tuesday, District Court Judge Kristen Simmons of Ingham County determined prosecutors had not shown that the Republicans had intended to defraud anyone — even if their actions were based on a false belief — and dismissed the cases.”
What?! Had not “intended to defraud anyone”?! They “claimed to be presidential electors” and the documents were sent to Mike Pence and the National Archives and the avowed purpose was “that Congress should certify Trump as the winner …” Sounds like massive intentional fraud to me!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/09/michigan-electors-2020/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert
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