When CNN Newsroom got the breaking news on Thursday that the Supreme Court had invalidated President Trump's efforts to undo DACA, the network's chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin was a logical choice to bring on to discuss the matter. However, instead of discussing legal matters, Toobin praised Chief Justice John Roberts as a politician who is in tune with public opinion.
Toobin began his explanation by noting that Roberts, in addition to his Obamacare vote, also recently joined Neil Gorsuch and the four liberals in ruling that sexual orientation is protected under Title VII. He then tried to explain Roberts' votes.
He contended Roberts is "definitely a conservative," an assertion that looks more incorrect every time the Court comes out with a controversial ruling. He also contended that Roberts, "is also a very good politician, and I mean that in a respectful sense because I think all great Supreme Court justices are good politicians."
Toobin praised Roberts' ability to sense where public opinion is:
I think at some level John Roberts recognized that in the United States in 2020 you simply did not fire people because they are gay. That's just something intolerable to the vast majority Americans. In the same sense, he recognized that deporting 700,000 young people who did nothing wrong, who had no -- by no definition are not criminals because you can't be in the DACA program if you've been convicted of a crime, to deport these people who have lived their entire lives with small exceptions as Americans is simply intolerable.
He then played into the idea that good conservative justices are those who side with liberals on controversial cases, "and I think, you know, Sandra Day O'Connor was another justice who had her finger of the pulse of what Americans will tolerate and John Roberts as he matures, it's now been fifteen years as Chief Justice of the United States, is recognizing that the Supreme Court can't be too far out of step with the vast majority of the American people."
Perhaps it should not have been unexpected that CNN's legal analyst praised the Court's non-legal reasoning as the chyron highlighted the political, not the legal, ramifications, "Huge loss for Trump as Chief Justice Roberts sides with liberal Justices."
Here is a transcript for Toobin's June 18 remarks:
CNN
CNN Newsroom with Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto
10:22 AM ET
JEFFREY TOOBIN: You know, it's worth -- what struck me is not just the Obamacare decision but, remember, John Roberts voted with Neil Gorsuch and the liberals on the discrimination against gay people case last week and you know, I think John Roberts, who is definitely a conservative, is also a very good politician, and I mean that in a respectful sense because I think all great Supreme Court justices are good politicians. I think at some level John Roberts recognized that in the United States in 2020 you simply did not fire people because they are gay. That's just something intolerable to the vast majority Americans. In the same sense, he recognized that deporting 700,000 young people who did nothing wrong, who had no -- by no definition are not criminals because you can't be in the DACA program if you've been convicted of a crime, to deport these people who have lived their entire lives with small exceptions as Americans is simply intolerable, and I think, you know, Sandra Day O'Connor was another justice who had her finger of the pulse of what Americans will tolerate and John Roberts as he matures, it's now been fifteen years as Chief Justice of the United States, is recognizing that the Supreme Court can't be too far out of step with the vast majority of the American people.
