Trump’s Attack on the Courts Channels the Worst of Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt hated the idea of unelected judges stopping him and his allies in the Progressive movement from wielding government power as they saw fit. So Roosevelt advocated stripping the courts of their independence by subjecting both judges and judicial decisions to recall by popular vote.
“When a judge decides a constitutional question,” Roosevelt argued in 1912, “the people should have the right to recall that decision if they think it is wrong.” It must be “made much easier than it now is to get rid, not merely of a bad judge,” Roosevelt declared, but of any judge. As far as Roosevelt was concerned, the Progressive movement “cannot surrender the right of ultimate control to a judge.”
Sound familiar?
Donald Trump’s second presidential term is barely 3 months old, and a Rooseveltian offensive against the courts is already in full swing. Indeed, the Trump administration began attacking the independence of the judiciary almost as soon as the administration began appearing in federal court. “When judges egregiously undermine the democratic will of the people,” declared Elon Musk, the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, “they must be fired or democracy dies!” “Radical left-wing judges are egregiously trying to stop President Trump from using his core constitutional powers as head of the Executive Branch and Commander-in-Chief,” claimed White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “They MUST be reined in.”
Trump at least avoided using the overtaxed word egregiously, but he did call for the impeachment of judges whose decisions he does not like. “HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING!” Trump fumed after Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued the order blocking Trump’s deportation flights. “I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do.
Article from Reason.com
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