In an unprecedented move, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan jointly signed a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts demanding he take action to rein in district court and, perhaps, appeals court judges who are anonymously slamming the Supreme Court. At issue is an October story in The New York Times headlined, Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders. You can read an analysis of the story here: Federal Judges Blame Trump and SCOTUS for a Problem They Created; We Need to Fix It Now. This is how the letter from Grassley and Jordan characterizes the story.
According to the reporting, The Times contacted more than 400 of the almost 1,500 federal judges and asked them to respond to a questionnaire about the use of the emergency docket by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Times specifically included all the judges from “districts that have handled at least one legal challenge in a major piece of Mr. Trump’s agenda.” Of the 400 judges contacted by The Times, sixty-five judges responded to the survey, and forty-seven of the responses indicated that the “Supreme Court had been mishandling its emergency docket since Mr. Trump returned to office.” The Times further reported:
In interviews, federal judges called the Supreme Court’s emergency orders “mystical,” “overly blunt,” “incredibly demoralizing and troubling” and “a slap in the face to the district courts.” One judge compared their district’s current relationship with the Supreme Court to “a war zone.” Another said the courts were in the midst of a “judicial crisis.” The Times explained that “the judges responded to the questionnaire and spoke in interviews on the condition of anonymity so they could share their views candidly, as lower court judges are governed by a complex set of rules that include limitations on their public statements.” The Times went on to characterize these responses and interviews as “overwhelmingly critical of the Supreme Court” and reflective of “extraordinary tensions within the judiciary.”
John Roberts is a SNAKE!