Attacking Supreme Court may be next up for Trump

When I pray for the U.S. Supreme Court, what I’m usually beseeching the Lord for is the continued vitality of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I’m not alone.

Her very existence is pivotal. Her health scares — which thankfully have been followed by quick recoveries — are monitored by people as if she were a beloved family member.

Ginsburg’s presence holds the progressive minority’s line in the court’s 5-4 right/left split. If she leaves this earth while President Donald Trump is in office, the minority will erode further and the impact will be felt for generations. Lord knows what kind of conservative Trump would appoint next.

Which partly explains why tickets to a December 19 ceremony in Philadelphia to induct Ginsburg into the National Museum of American Jewish History Hall of Fame sold out in two minutes and 48 seconds.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts has no similar cachet, but he could use a broad cheering squad. He will soon oversee the impeachment trial of Trump.

Roberts is about to step into a modern era gladiator’s pit — which will be spurred on by the social media attacks of none other than POTUS. Roberts will hold his own. He’s a bigger man than Trump. He is confident in his expertise. He’s level-headed. And his career and position are in no way beholden to Trump, who domineers his party like a 19th-century city machine boss.

Those facets of Roberts’ character, once they are displayed on televised coverage of the trial, will likely only inflame the president, who utterly lacks any qualities recognizable as virtuous. Trump has already latched to promoting the idea to his base that the impeachment trial is solely about his reelection chances and about the Democrats’ spite.

Actually, the trial is to weigh the charges against Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. And Roberts will have the unenviable and possibly impossible job of attempting to hold the reputation of the U.S. Supreme Court above the political fray.

Trump will attack Roberts. He’ll attack the court. And, given Trump’s knack at befouling every U.S. institution he comes into contact with, it is the reputation of the court above all that Roberts must safeguard.

The outcome is all but set. The GOP majority in the Senate is all but determined to acquit. For Roberts, that given doesn’t deflate what else is at stake.

The ground rules of the trial’s proceedings are far from agreed upon. And even though he’s presiding over it, the process isn’t necessarily under Roberts’ control. The Senate can set the rules — issues like subpoenaing witnesses and the introduction of evidence. The Senate can also upend any rules of procedure that Roberts tries to use.

Will Roberts hold any sway? He is damned if he tries and damned if he doesn’t. And the nation will be watching live, unlike during normal U.S. Supreme Court proceedings. Into that morass Roberts is about to step, carrying the need to remain impartial, to try and keep the reputation of the highest court above the muck of our current caustic politics.

Roberts has already run afoul of conservatives. In 2015, after Roberts voted to support some aspects of Obamacare amid court challenges, some rightwing conspiracists floated the notion that he had been blackmailed.

Welcome to hell, Chief Roberts. Soon, very soon, the president will attempt to turn his most rabidly uninformed fans on you.

You’ll be fine. But please save the court.