Donald Trump and the conservative interests that helped him reshape the Supreme Court got most of what they wanted this term, from substantial help for Trump’s political and legal prospects to sharp blows against the administrative state they revile.
The decisions reflected a deep and sometimes bitter divide on a court in which conservatives, including three justices appointed by Trump, have a two-to-one advantage over liberals, and seem likely to reinforce the views of most Americans that ideology, rather than a neutral application of the law, drives the outcome of the court’s biggest cases.
The justices also contended with ethics controversies that led to the adoption of the court’s first code of conduct, though one with no means of enforcement. Months later came public statements from Justice Samuel Alito rejecting calls that he step aside from several cases over questions of his impartiality, including following the revelations that two flags associated with rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol flew over Alito’s homes in New Jersey and Virginia.
Chief Justice John Roberts, often viewed with suspicion by Trump and his allies over his concerns about judicial independence and worries about the court’s reputation, delivered the most consequential decisions. Those include the court’s grant of broad immunity from criminal prosecution to former presidents and its reversal of a 40-year-old case that had been used thousands of times to uphold federal regulations.
“He’s got competing inclinations. One is to be the statesman and institutionalist,” University of California at Los Angeles law professor Richard Hasen said. The other, Hasen said, is to dig in “when it is something that is important enough to him.”
Presidential power is one of those issues for Roberts, who worked in the White House counsel’s office during the Reagan administration.