Name:   MAJ USA RET - Subject:   a view from the weeds Date:   11/22/2018 7:16:39 PM

Architect – “Did you have similar misgivings a few years ago when Justice Roberts expressed critical remarks about Barack Obama after Obama publicly disagreed with the Citizens United decision?”   - - I am remiss.  I don’t recall that.  (Maybe I was in Iraq when that went down.) To be frank, I probably would have agreed with Justice Robert’s position… but, would have been concerned that he would inappropriately speak out of court… unless, of course, it was by way of publishing the majority and dissenting opinions of the court.

Architect – “…do you think it was wise for President Trump to have cast the first stone by condemning the actions of the constitutional co-equal branch of government which is supposed to be removed from ''politics''?  - - The media has given President Trump little opportunity to express himself unedited or taken out of context.  The President of the United States IS a political creature.  Additionally, his words are true about the 9^th District Court.  However, I am personally disturbed at his syntax.  I think he should jot down his tweets and give them to someone (e.g. Kellyanne Conway) for editing before hitting the send button.  I don’t disagree with his tweets – I do disagree with his tone.  (I also do not know how Twitter works.)

Architect – “…what is and is not appropriate as concerns relations between the separate branches of the government…?” - - The Supreme Court justices and their staff should IGNORE the President specifically and all politics generally.   They speak when they adjudicate. And, that is the definitive message to the other two branches of government. 

The sole mission of the Supreme Court is to decide constitutionality.  If an appeal, on its merits complies with the Constitution, the Supreme Court rules in favor of the law or action in question.  If the appeal is found to have violated the Constitution, the Supreme Court invalidates the law or action.  If a law or action before the Supreme Court is not covered in the Constitution… “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people” [Tenth Amendment]... the Supreme Court sends the appeal back to the states… or refuses to hear it.

By the way, had Roberts not framed ObamaCare as a “tax”, it would have been nullified and sent back to the states per the Tenth Amendment… as would Roe v Wade in the constitutionalist court we have now.  Both of those could (should) only survive as Amendments ratified by the states.  Both of them were after surviving the Supreme Court, political acts of judicial activism.  Remember, as I pointed out elsewhere, the Supreme Court is a democracy (majority rules) and, barring true legislation by Congress, can get away with acts of tyranny.

- LMF Curmudgeon