What is the sound of the Supreme Court siding with President Donald Trump? Silence.
In two cases on Monday, the Supreme Court sent down orders enabling the Trump administration’s most obvious violations of the law — or, what should be obvious violations — since taking office without saying much of anything at all.
In one terse order, the court allowed Trump to fire Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter without cause, despite a law on the books backed by a 90-year-old precedent saying that he could not. The order did not explain its reasoning, leaving Americans to wonder at how the court had justified overturning what had, until this year, been understood as law.
Then, in a 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservatives blocked a lower court’s ruling preventing federal immigration enforcement officers from engaging in racial profiling in violation of the Fourth Amendment. There was no majority opinion from the six conservatives. They offered no justification or explanation for this.
Since Trump took office in January, the court has increasingly decided huge issues on the shadow docket, where it rules without arguments and often without issuing written opinions.
