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‘My judges’Trump’s relationship with the federal judiciary—both the judges who serve in the federal judiciary and the broader legal institution itself—differs from that of his predecessors. He talks about the court system not as an independent branch of government but as a political institution whose positions should align with his own.In his Jan. 6, 2021, speech before the attack on the US Capitol, Trump sounded miffed at the three justices he had nominated to the Supreme Court. They were ruling against him now, he said, perhaps to counter the perception that “they’re my puppets.”Modern presidents have always sought to mould the judiciary by selecting justices whose records align with the nominating president’s political preferences. But historically, presidents were careful to discuss the courts in legalistic terms and avoid politicizing the judiciary.Trump flouted those norms. In an unusual move, he released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees while campaigning for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, touting the conservative credentials of the names on his list.Once elected, he asked members of the Federalist Society, a group dedicated to putting conservative judges on the bench, to help him select nominees, including the three justices he eventually put on the Supreme Court.Once the Senate confirmed his nominees to the Supreme Court, Trump referred to Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett as “my” judges.And as his legal cases have made their way through the courts, he suggested that judges he nominated at any level—district, circuit, or for the Supreme Court—owed him favourable rulings because he gave them their seats. One of Trump’s lawyers in the Colorado ballot case now before the Supreme Court suggested in January 2023 that “people like Kavanaugh, who the president fought for, who the president went through hell to get into place, he’ll step up.”And Trump has questioned the credentials of most judges who have ruled against him, whether it’s in response to cases involving his presidential policies or those involving his personal conduct, especially when Democrats nominated those judges. When judges have refused to bend to his will, Trump has pushed back, lambasting the judges as biased and saying they were “out of control” and the court system was “broken and unfair.” He used social media to call the federal judge presiding over his Jan. 6 prosecution a “TRUE TRUMP HATER.”
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US Supreme Court heads into uncharted, dangerous territory as it considers Trump insurrection case
