Trump-appointed justice just blew up John Roberts’ claim they’re not 'political actors'
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President Donald Trump shakes hands with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
In a rare appearance, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared on a conservative show, exposing Chief Justice John Roberts' ongoing claims of non-partisanship.
On Wednesday, Roberts appeared at a conference for lawyers and judges in Hershey, PA, where he lamented that Americans simply don't understand that he and his colleagues aren't "political actors" making decisions on policy.
“We’re not simply part of the political process, and there’s a reason for that, and I’m not sure people grasp that as much as is appropriate,” Roberts complained.
On the same day, Gorsuch appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show to promote his new book. The interview came amid Kelly's claims that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter had a "meltdown" and that there was supposedly "tension" between Barack and Michelle Obama.
One of the questions that Kelly asked Gorsuch about was how difficult it is for "right-leaning young people to own their politics in school."
Gorsuch attempted to pivot back to the subject of his book on the Founding Fathers before saying that young people can emulate heroes by looking through the pages of history.
"You're just a little bit older than I am, but when I went to school in the 1980s, you could say whatever you wanted," Kelly complained. "No one cared. Like, the way I remember it anyway, you'd get more pats on the head if you espoused liberal points of view, but it wasn't really required in order to get ahead everywhere the way it seems to be today."
She went on to ask whether young people should "go along to get along."
Gorsuch said that before anyone criticizes, they should learn and "make sure you know what you're talking about." Then, he said, they should stand up "to be a patriot."
"Would you have been one of the silent majority who just tried to stay out of it? And aren't you glad some people did stand up?" he added.
In one of his interviews with Fox News, Gorsuch gushed about his admiration of far-right colleague Justice Clarence Thomas.
“I adore that man. He a great student and scholar of the U.S. Constitution," said Gorsuch.
In the first few days of his media tour, Gorsuch also appeared twice on Fox News, CBS News, the conservative National Review, and spoke to Libertarian Nick Gillespie at Reason.
"John Roberts [is] increasingly the Susan Collins of SCOTUS. Always very concerned, swears he and his colleagues aren’t doing what they’re obviously doing, provides a veneer of moderation when all the others are flying insurrection flags over their houses," wrote Jesse Lee, a former Obama and Biden administration aide.
Roberts was recently exposed in a series of leaked internal memos about a "shadow docket" ruling in which Roberts appeared to railroad rulings that changed established laws themselves or paused laws from taking effect until there was no further litigation on them, one legal scholar said.
New York Timesopinion columnist Jamelle Bouie called out Roberts on Wednesday, along with the other conservatives on the court, who, he said, misunderstand American realities.