The Rigged Game
The Rigged Game
Editor: The Jan-Feb 2026 edition of Mother Jones published a scathing indictment of the sitting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, and the actions that have directly led to the “corrupt and abusive Trump reign”. What follows are direct quotes (with large parts of the article left out because of copyright issues) from that brilliant article by Pema Levy and Ari Berman. All items within parentheses are added by this writer for clarification. Please subscribe to Mother Jones and support its 50 years of fearless journalism; it’s definitely worth the money. Call 1-800-438-6656 for subscription information. Sign up for newsletters at motherjones.com/daily-news-D.S. Mitchell, aka “Calamity”.
Excerpts from “Blame John Roberts for Everything”
By Pema Levy and Ari Berman
“Today, as the Robert’s court rewrites the Constitution in the image of Trumpian autocracy, it’s become clear that Robert’s promise (when he was testifying to the Senate at his confirmation hearing) to be a neutral umpire was a lie. We are watching a rigged game, and Roberts set it up.”
“Twenty years ago, John Roberts promised (the Senate, the country and the media) that as chief justice of the Supreme Court, he would be like an umpire, calling balls and strikes. The delusion was so powerful that for two decades the media defaulted to portraying him as a moderate institutionalist.”
“The Robert’s court has spent Trump’s second term not applying the law so much as clearing it out of his (Trump’s) way. In a matter of months, the court’s 6-3 GOP aligned majority has permitted a long list of lawless actions, including firing independent agency commissioners, using racial profiling in immigration sweeps, disappearing immigrants to authoritarian and war-torn nations, and defying Congress’ power of the purse.”
(This didn’t start yesterday,) “Robert’s has been embedding white-dominant authoritarianism into the country’s source code for two decades. It is impossible to imagine today’s crisis without the Robert’s court having first undermined the foundations of our democracy.”
“(Representative) Democracies are built on the right to vote and choose representatives. The United States finally recognized this right for all people with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (and 1982).”
“As chief justice (Robert’s) has helped craft a string of rulings knee-capping (the Voting Rights Act of 1965 & 1982) laws, starting with his 2013 Shelby County v Holder. The decision overruled Congress and freed states with histories of discrimination to change their voting rules, spurring the creation of 115 voter suppression laws in more than 30 states. Many were inspired by Trump’s election lies.”
“After oral arguments in a Louisiana redistricting case, observers expect Roberts and the GOP justices to declare that the districts drawn to preserve representation for voters of color are either unconstitutional or subject to insurmountable barriers. It’s a decision that would turn the 14th and 15th Amendments-passed during Reconstruction to give formerly enslaved people citizenship and equal rights-on their heads, and turbocharge Trump’s gerrymandering push.”
“Such redrawn (gerrymandered) maps could shift up to 19 eats to the GOP in 2026 and runs the threat of creating a permanent GOP control of Congress.”
“His (Roberts) decisive vote in 2010’s Citizens United v FEC lifted the restrictions on political spending, while ludicrously insisting it would not ‘lead to, or create the appearance of quid pro quo corruption.’ Political spending by billionaires has since increased 160-fold. There’s a direct line between the ruling and Elon Musk buying Trump the White House with more than $290 million and (subsequently) being given free rein to fire his (Musk’s) companies’ regulators in return.”
Secret meetings with George Bush and Robert’s propensity to refuse to recuse from cases where there was conflict of interest and his love affair with the theory of unitary executive authority over the entire executive branch won over the heart of the leader of his party (George W. Bush) and low and behold we had a new chief justice.
Despite “the Roberts court’s increasingly radical record-from its elimination of the right to reproductive choice to allowing businesses to deny services to LGBTQ clients-many legal analysts argued that Roberts would draw the line at saying the Constitution protected presidents from criminal liability.”
“On July 1, 2024 Roberts’ infamous decision in Trump v United States granted presidents criminal immunity for official acts. Chicago University Law professor Aziz Huq notes that the decision is the capstone to a chain of Roberts opinions endorsing the unitary executive theory, thereby granting the presidency the option, essentially, to opt out of statutory laws.”
“And once Trump was back in office, it (the Roberts court) weaponized the shadow docket to bless his lawless actions, reversing lower court findings, often without a word of explanation. As of this writing, the right wing majority has used the shadow docket to uphold Trump’s actions roughly 90 percent of the time, repeatedly bailing him out of any obligation to follow the law.”
“That’s because Roberts has totally replaced the rule of law with partisan loyalty-for example, ruling that ICE can consider race when seizing people off the street while colleges can’t when admitting students, which is consistent only insofar as both outcome are supported by Republicans, or letting Trump withhold funds appropriated by Congress in defiance of the legislature’s spending power.”
“Under the Roberts court, it won’t be enough to rewrite the rules of the game. The umpires are the problem.”
