John Roberts Is on a Collision Course with Trump

Alexander Hamilton saw it coming. In the Federalist Papers, he described the judiciary as a feeble branch of government, easily “overpowered, awed or influenced” by Congress and the president. Lacking the means to enforce their rulings, judges, he wrote, would need an “uncommon portion of fortitude.”

If any judge feels that necessity now, it is Chief Justice John Roberts. The legal challenges to President Trump’s constitutional crime spree are multiplying. One case, concerning the president’s purge of government watchdogs, has already reached the Supreme Court. The justices could soon take up another, weighing whether the president can end birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants. As Chief Justice Roberts no doubt knows, these battles pose one of the most profound tests his institution has ever faced — a test of its authority and the idea of equal justice under the law. The chief will have to find his fortitude.