Ten minutes before oral arguments for the birthright citizenship case at the Supreme Court began on Wednesday, a hush came over the courtroom. President Trump walked in and came face to face with justices whom he has tried to bully and intimidate.
Mr. Trump became the first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the court, watching from the courtroom’s public gallery as the justices across the ideological spectrum questioned his efforts to strictly limit birthright citizenship.
The first. Not the good kind of first; the other kind. Blatant intimidation move. Nice little court ya got here.
He watched as the arguments began and delved quickly into a history lesson about the 19th century debate surrounding the 14th Amendment.
That will have been gibberish to him. The what now? What century? What debate? What amendment? What mean? Is there a comic book version?
Trump, who has appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, has often talked about the justices not as independent checks on his power appointed for their expertise but as loyalists who should support his agenda. Last month, he suggested that Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, whom he nominated during his first term, were “an embarrassment to their families” because they sided with the majority against him.
That’s what he knows. Mobster loyalty. The history of enslavement and the 14th Amendment, not so much.
Many people outside the court expressed strong opposition to the president’s presence.
“I think it’s basically kind of a strong-arming tactic, wanting to be there, intimidate them with his presence,” said Michelle McKeithen. “And, kind of a statement of: ‘Make a decision while I’m here, looking you dead in your eye — and don’t make the wrong decision.’”
Damn right that’s what it is.