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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Earlier on Friday, Boasberg extended his temporary restraining order to halt deportation flights. The order was set to expire on March 29, but Boasberg extended it to April 12, “or until further order of the Court,” Newsweek reported.
“The continued interference by an unelected activist judge in the foreign policy of the United States is a clear obstruction of President Trump’s constitutional authority and threatens the safety and security of all Americans,” a spokesperson for the Department of Justice told Newsweek.
On Thursday, after Boasberg was assigned a lawsuit regarding a journalist being added to a Signal chat with high-ranking defense officials, Trump lashed out at the judge.
“How disgraceful is it that ‘Judge’ James Boasberg has just been given a fourth ‘Trump Case,’ something which is, statistically, IMPOSSIBLE. There is no way for a Republican, especially a TRUMP REPUBLICAN, to win before him,” the president said on his TruthSocial account the day before Boasberg extended his order halting deportation flights.
“He is Highly Conflicted, not only in his hatred of me — Massive Trump Derangement Syndrome! — but also, because of disqualifying family conflicts. Boasberg, who is the Chief Judge of the D.C. District Court, seems to be grabbing the ‘Trump Cases’ all to himself, even though it is not supposed to happen that way,” the president said.
