Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly said last week during her daily show that she believes U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts could be on the “thinnest of possible ice” depending on how he rules regarding President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport illegal migrant gang members.
After a lower court judge ruled Trump’s use of the centuries-old law was improper — a decision upheld by a federal appellate court on Thursday — the administration filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court. Kelly indicated on her SiriusXM program that Roberts may be the one Republican-appointed judge who would side against the president.
“John Roberts, above all, knows if he hands down a ruling telling the commander-in-chief that the nine men and women in black robes have the final say over what is perceived as a military threat unleashed on us by a foreign government, he’s on the thinnest of possible ice,” the host said. “He’s so obsessed with the court. I just can’t see him wanting to do it.”
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s temporary halt on deportation flights that the administration used for to deport members of the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to a maximum security facility in El Salvador.
Her guest, political analyst Mark Halperin, said that he believes the Supreme Court decision could favor the president even though, on occasion, Roberts votes against Republicans.
“Well, he [Roberts] is an interesting figure because he does vote sometimes against Republican presidents, including this one,” the analyst said. “He does care about the integrity of the court, the reputation of the court … I think that they’re going to rule some against the president in some form, and there are going to be some that are result-oriented. They don’t all rule on the merits, sad to say.”
“I think in this case and in the ones that are comparable, as you suggested, as has been mentioned, deference to the commander-in-chief on this stuff is something where there’s clearly popular will. You can find that. You don’t need to look outside the walls of the Constitution to find that,” Halperin added.
“They’ll probably vote with the president on this one. But, Roberts has got to expedite these things,” he added. “It doesn’t make any sense for America to not expedite them. These should be on the fastest of tracks. They should be on a track like Bush v. Gore, not treated at all like normal cases, because it’s a campaign promise and it’s happening now.”
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