'Taunt the judiciary': Legal scholars slam 'invalid' MAGA lawsuit against John Roberts

Many critics of President Donald Trump are accusing him of failing to respect the United States' system of checks and balances, arguing that the federal government's executive branch, under the U.S. Constitution, isn't as powerful as he says it is.

Regardless, Trump and his MAGA allies, including White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, maintain that the federal courts are overreaching and have no business intruding on his executive powers.

On April 22, according to Talking Points Memo (TPM) reporter Josh Kovensky, the America First Legal Foundation filed a "little-known lawsuit" against U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and the head of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts — accusing the federal courts of undermining his presidential powers.

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"The case ostensibly proceeds as a FOIA lawsuit, with the Trump-aligned group seeking access to judiciary records," Kovensky explains. "But, in doing so, it asks the courts to cede massive power to the White House: the bodies that make court policy and manage the judiciary's day-to-day operations should be considered independent agencies of the executive branch, the suit argues, giving the president, under the conservative legal movement's theories, the power to appoint and dismiss people in key roles."

But legal experts interviewed by TPM, according to Kovensky, "reacted to the suit with a mixture of dismay, disdain and laughter."

Anne Joseph O’Connell, a law professor at Stanford University, told TPM, "It's like using an invalid legal claim to taunt the judiciary."

Peter M. Shane, who teaches constitutional law at New York University, told TPM, "To the extent this lawsuit has any value other than clickbait, maybe the underlying message is: We will let our imaginations run wild. The Trump Administration and the MAGA community will let our imaginations run wild in our attempts to figure out ways to make the life of the judiciary miserable, to the extent you push back against Trump."

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Read the full Talking Points Memo article at this link.