Bob Schwartz

Trump has friends or at least sympathizers on the Supreme Court. He is hoping to appoint more.

Already in the first few weeks, Trump has taken executive actions that are clearly unconstitutional. Then yesterday, Vance said that judges don’t have the right to control presidential power. Vance and other Republican lawyers know better. The Trump Justices of the Supreme Court know better.

Those Justices are scared.

Knowing that Trump will continue to act in unconstitutional ways that threaten the core concept of separation of powers and checks and balances, and knowing history, they are concerned about the trajectory of the republic.

As the constitutional challenges work their way through the judiciary, they know that the challenges—and ultimately interpretation of the Constitution—will end up on their bench. Whether or not they want to take on Trump, his Republican supporters, and tens of millions of Americans who believe that Trump should be able to do whatever he wants, they are going to have to.

Maybe they decide that centuries of precedent in interpreting the Constitution should stand, and these executive actions must stop. Or maybe they decide that these are extraordinary times, and under these circumstances, the constitutional structure must give way to the president.

Either way, as students of history, the Justices would rather not have to face that crossroad, since whatever they decide, they know the last time the Constitution itself was so deeply contested, the result was the literal division of America. They—at least one Justice—would rather be touring America in a luxury RV, rather than deciding the fate of the republic.

But they are not going to have that option.

© 2025 by Bob Schwartz