'It's always been nonsense': John Roberts' long-running claim blown up by editor

Chief Justice John Roberts claims to be a moderate but is in fact in Donald Trump's pocket, according to a Salon editor.

Alex Galbraith, Salon's nights and weekends editor, is also author of the outlet's free daily newsletter, Crash Course. On Thursday, Crash Course took aim at Roberts, whom it says "has overseen the death of the Voting Rights Act, the end of abortion protections in the United States and the last semblance of potential consequences for criminal American presidents."

If you don't believe Roberts is a moderate, just ask Roberts himself, according to Galbraith.

"Roberts has spent decades saying he’s a truth-teller and objective interpreter of the U.S. Constitution. In semi-annual public addresses, Roberts comes off as a neutral party willing to weigh new legal theories and laws against the rock-ribbed document that established our system of government. Reports of secret memos to whip court support for Republican presidents or clandestine phone calls with high-level federal judges have yet to outrun the story Roberts tells about himself," he wrote. "It’s always been nonsense."

The newsletter goes on to take aim at the other conservative justices.

"Sure, Roberts might seem level-headed compared to the seance-holding Originalist Samuel Alito, tantrum-throwing boozer Brett Kavanaugh and bribe-taking Cone of Silence resident Clarence Thomas. But’s he’s as much of an operative for the Republican Party as any of them. Perhaps more so, as his hard-won reputation as an honest dealer provides a sheen of legitimacy to the blatantly partisan rulings of his court," according to the editor. "No need to dig through the last few decades of Roberts court decisions, just take a look back on the term that just ended. Making heavy use of the court’s 'shadow docket,' the court has dodged the question of birthright citizenship, allowed the president to gut the federal government and generally shown support for lawlessness in the executive branch, provided the president wears a red tie."

He then concluded, saying, "The purpose of a system, famously, is what it does. John Roberts’ court turns the right’s most hare-brained and hateful schemes into legal precedent."

"What do you think? Will the public conception of John Roberts stand up to his obvious bias toward Trump?" he asks the readers.