Republicans attack conservative Supreme Court after week of historic decisions

Donald Trump and several Republican lawmakers are launching attacks on the conservative-leaning Supreme Court after it handed down two decisions the Trump administration fought against.

The first win came Monday, when the court said in a 6-3 decision that employers cannot discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The Trump administration had argued against expanding protections to LGBTQ workers.

And on Thursday, the court ruled in a 5-4 decision that Trump unlawfully terminated the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — which allows undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors under no fault of their own to attend school and work in the U.S.

That decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, was less of a concrete win for immigrant rights advocates, as it gave an opening for Trump to terminate the program again, according to legal experts. The decision merely ruled that the way Trump initially terminated the program was unlawful.

Still, it was a rebuke that angered both Trump and other members of the Republican Party.

“These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning. “We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), one of Trump’s fiercest defenders on Capitol Hill, specifically attacked Roberts, the George W. Bush appointee who was the deciding vote on the DACA case.

“Chief Justice Roberts does it again. First, Obamacare. Now, DACA. What’s next? Our second amendment gun rights?” Jordan tweeted, referencing a 2012 decision in which Roberts sided with the liberal justices to rule that the Affordable Care Act was constitutional.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) posted a video to Twitter attacking Roberts for the decision.

“I’m extremely disappointed in this decision & in CJ Roberts for continuing to side against the rule of law,” Biggs tweeted.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) also had choice words for Roberts, who he suggested was legislating from the bench.

“If the Chief Justice believes his political judgment is so exquisite, I invite him to resign, travel to Iowa, and get elected,” Cotton told CNN’s Manu Raju. “I suspect voters will find his strange views no more compelling than do the principled justices.”

Rep. Scott Desjarlais, a Tennessee Republican who once urged multiple women he had sexual relations with to get abortions despite being publicly anti-abortion, called Roberts’ DACA decision “painful.”

“Roberts is wrapping himself around the axle to find a way to punt a political decision rather than make the right legal determination,” DesJarlais tweeted. “Sounds like he’s in Congress instead of the Supreme Court.”

And Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said this week has been the “most disappointing week at this #SCOTUS in years.”

“The Court continues to fashion one set of review standards under the Administrative Procedure Act for Democrat administrations and another for Republicans,” Hawley tweeted.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.