Chief Justice Roberts As Defendant In Wild American First Legal Case — That Might Even Redraw Division Of Powers
TL;DR version: where the courts become political, they become subject to political oversight
Ever since Dems lost their edge in the courts, they’ve been looking for subversive ways to exert control. That opened an opportunity for the right to punch back. One they did not see coming.
A legal firm established by White House Advisor Stephen Miller is bringing suit against Chief Justice John Roberts. And it all comes down to FOIA requests.
The ordinary work of a courtroom is NOT responsive to FOIA requests. Nor should it be. Co-Equal branches of government means something, after all.
But what happens when the court veers out of its proper lane, and starts taking on other responsibilities outside of its natural scope of determining winners and losers in court cases, and interpreting the finer points of the law?
That is precisely the point being raised by American First Legal.
In short:
They want the right to FOIA group within the Judiciary whose function looks more like a government agency than a courtroom.
The lawsuit was filed by the America First Legal Foundation against Roberts in his capacity as the official head of the U.S. Judicial Conference and Robert J. Conrad, who serves as the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
The complaint accuses both the U.S. Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts of performing certain regulatory actions that go beyond the scope of resolving cases or controversies, or administratively supporting those actions, which they argue are the “core functions” of the judiciary.
It also argues that records held by the Roberts-led U.S. Judicial Conference should therefore be subject to the Freedom of Information Act requests, or FOIA requests, as a result.
AFL cited in its lawsuit recent actions taken by both the Judicial Conference and Administrative Office in 2023 to “accommodate” requests from Congress to investigate allegations of ethical improprieties by Justices Thomas and Alito, and subsequently to create or adopt an “ethics code” for justices on the high court.
“Under our constitutional tradition, accommodations with Congress are the province of the executive branch,” AFL said, adding: “The Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office are therefore executive agencies,” and must therefore be overseen by the president, not the courts. — FoxNews
You have to admit, there’s a certain amount of irony, during a season where almost every court in the country seems to be interfering in how the President does his job, for somebody to come along and tell SCOTUS how to do theirs.
Can you imagine the response if ‘co-equal branches of government’ comes up as a reason that the Executive has no authority here?
After SCOTUS sat on its hands for the last 2 months while every tinpot dictator in a black robe told the duly-elected President of the United States — from whom the entirety of the executive branch constitutionally flows — how to do his job?
That would make for an interesting conversation.