It’s safe to say John Roberts won’t be getting a Christmas card from Mike Pence this year.
In an interview with the Christian Broadcast Network that aired on Wednesday, the vice president claimed Roberts, the Supreme Court chief justice appointed by George W. Bush in 2005, has been a “disappointment to conservatives” after siding with the liberal wing of the bench in several key rulings. Pence cited Roberts’ vote to uphold the Affordable Care Act in 2012 and the recent refusal to permit a Nevada church to ignore its state’s COVID-19 guidelines. Both of those were 5-4 rulings in which the right-leaning justice cast the deciding vote.
Pence, in particular, claimed that Roberts’ decision to strike down restrictions on abortion clinics in Louisiana was “a wake-up call for pro-life voters around the country.” Critics claimed the law would have closed nearly every clinic in the state by requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.
“That’s a very modest restriction on abortion providers, but a narrow majority in the Supreme Court still said it was unacceptable,” Pence said.
Pence claimed that Roberts’ vote in these cases is “a reminder of just how important this election is for the future of the Supreme Court.” “We remember the issue back in 2016, which I believe loomed large in voters’ decisions between Hillary Clinton and the man who would become president of the United States,” he said. “And some people thought that it wouldn’t be as big an issue these days. But I think that’s all changed.”
One ruling not explicitly mentioned by Pence is the Supreme Court’s June decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, in which justices ruled 6-3 that LGBTQ+ workers are entitled to equal protection under federal employment laws. Trump’s Department of Justice issued an amicus brief in that case claiming that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 cannot be applied to extend protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and yet Roberts was one of two conservative swing votes in that case. Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion.
Three days after that decision was released to the public, Roberts again swung to the left in another ruling not addressed by Pence: He voted to uphold the Obama-era program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allows the children of undocumented workers born in the United States to remain in the country. If the policy were rescinded, it would have led to the deportation of 650,000 young people, including an estimated 75,000 undocumented LGBTQ+ youth.
