No NFL team in the last 50 years has had a perfect season, but this is Trump’s record in the U.S. Supreme Court: 18-0. His splendid solicitor general, John Sauer, has racked up 18 wins this year by staying lower court decisions against Trump and thereby allowing the president to exercise the full “executive power” granted by Article II of the Constitution.
These victories have been on emergency applications to the Supreme Court, where it is difficult to obtain the justices’ attention and even more challenging to prevail. Also called the “shadow docket,” these wins by Trump have come quickly, without oral argument, often by a 6-3 or greater margin.
Seven of these wins have been on deporting illegal aliens, five on firing unnecessary federal workers, four on terminating wasteful federal spending, one on ending transgender personnel in the military, and one on stopping the epidemic of nationwide injunctions by district court judges.
On Monday, Chief Justice John Roberts granted a stay to Trump, as requested by Sauer, of a D.C. Circuit ruling that had blocked Trump from removing a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Despite being on the court’s traditional summer vacation until it returns later this month, Roberts granted Trump’s request on the second business day after it was filed.
