COURTS/OBAMA/SUPREME COURT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump and Chief Justice John Roberts clashed Wednesday [11-21-18] in an extraordinary public dispute over the independence of America’s judiciary, with Roberts bluntly rebuking the president for denouncing a judge who rejected his migrant asylum policy as an “Obama judge.’ There’s no such thing, Roberts declared in a strongly worded statement contradicting Trump and defending judicial independence. Never silent for long, Trump defended his own comment, tweeting defiantly, ‘Sorry Justice Roberts.’ The pre-Thanksgiving dustup was the first time that Roberts, the Republican-appointed leader of the federal judiciary, has offered even a hint of criticism of Trump, who has several times blasted federal judges who have ruled against him. Before now, it has been highly unusual for a president to single out judges for personal criticism. And a chief justice’s challenge to a president’s comments is downright unprecedented in modern times.”
–The Associated Press, “Roberts, Trump Spar in Extraordinary Scrap Over Judges,” The New York Times online, November 21, 2018