Politics

Trump calls Supreme Court rulings 'shotgun blasts into the face' of Republicans, conservatives

Key Points
  • President Donald Trump raged against recent Supreme Court decisions that he said were "horrible & politically charged" and "shotgun blasts into ... Republicans or Conservatives."
  • In an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, the high court dealt the Trump administration a blow in its effort to end the DACA program, which protects young undocumented immigrants.
  • Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch authored another recent decision that said workers cannot be fired for being gay or transgender.
  • Former President Barack Obama lauded the DACA decision and touted the Democratic presidential candidacy of Joe Biden in a tweet about the ruling.
U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House upon his return to Washington, U.S., after a weekend in Bedminster, New Jersey, June 14, 2020.
Yuri Gripas | Reuters

President Donald Trump raged Thursday against recent Supreme Court decisions, calling them "horrible & politically charged," and "shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives."

"We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!" the president wrote in a tweet shortly after the Supreme Court ruled against his administration in its effort to undo a program known as DACA.

The Obama-era program protects hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants from deportation.

"Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn't like me?" Trump wrote in a second Twitter post, which came after he retweeted a news site that highlighted Judge Clarence Thomas' dissenting opinion in the DACA ruling.

Trump's ire possibly was enhanced by the fact that Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices, such as Thomas, outnumber Democrat-appointed justices, but that 5-4 margin has not guaranteed Republicans and conservatives a number of victories in the court that they might have expected,

Tweet

Tweet

Trump later tweeted that, "The recent Supreme Court decisions, not only on DACA, Sanctuary Cities, Census, and others, tell you only one thing, we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court."

"If the Radical Left Democrats assume power, your Second Amendment, Right to Life, Secure Borders, and Religious Liberty, among many other things, are OVER and GONE!," he added.

He also wrote that he release a new list of "Conservative Supreme Court Justice nominees, which may include some, or many of those already on the list" by the beginning of September.

Although there currently are no vacancies on the court, Trump said that, "If given the opportunity, I will only choose from this list, as in the past, a Conservative Supreme Court Justice."

"Based on decisions being rendered now, this list is more important than ever before (Second Amendment, Right to Life, Religous Liberty, etc.)," Trump tweeted.

The DACA opinion was written by Chief Justice John Roberts, who joined the four liberal justices on the high court in the ruling that said the Trump administration acted in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner to terminate the program, formally known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Roberts was appointed to the Supreme Court by President George W. Bush, a Republican.

The chief justice has repeatedly irked conservatives by sometimes joining with liberal justices in rulings that were opposed by Republicans, most notably in decisions that protected the health-care law known as Obamacare. Roberts last summer wrote the opinion that effectively blocked the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

On Monday the Supreme Court, in a ruling written by Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch, said that workers cannot be fired for being gay or transgender.

Trump at the time had said of that ruling that "some people were surprised" with the decision but "they've ruled, and we live with their decision."

"That's what it's all about. We live with the decision of the Supreme Court," the president said.

Trump TWO 

On the same day as the ruling in the gay and transgender cases was released, the high court refused to hear a challenge brought by the Trump administration to California's so-called sanctuary law, limiting the impact of the president's immigration agenda in that state. 

Also on Monday, the Supreme Court likewise refused to consider hearing appeals on 10 Second Amendment-related cases that have been backed by activists who want to loosen gun regulations.

Supreme Court blocks the cancellation of DACA program
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Supreme Court blocks the cancellation of DACA program

In contrast to Trump's vitriol over the Supreme Court, his predecessor in the White House, President Barack Obama, lauded the DACA decision on Twitter and used it as an opportunity to tout the Democratic presidential candidacy of his vice president, Joe Biden.

"Eight years ago this week, we protected young people who were raised as part of our American family from deportation," Obama wrote.

"Today, I'm happy for them, their families, and all of us. We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals," Obama wrote. "And now to stand up for those ideals, we have to move forward and elect @JoeBiden and a Democratic Congress that does its job, protects DREAMers, and finally creates a system that's truly worthy of this nation of immigrants once and for all."

Obama Tweets

Biden later weighed in himself, writing on Twitter: "The Supreme Court's ruling today is a victory made possible by the courage and resilience of hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients who bravely stood up and refused to be ignored. And as President, I will get to work immediately to make it permanent."

Biden 

Supreme Court rules existing civil rights law protects LGBTQ workers
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Supreme Court rules existing civil rights law protects LGBTQ workers