Media, Law & Policy

When Judges are Political — Except When They are Not

Monday, February 6, 2017, By Ellen Mbuqe

Keith Bybee, professor of law and professor of political science and author of All Judges Are Political – Except When They Are Not: Acceptable Hypocrisies and the Rule of Law, offers insight on on one of President Donald Trump’s recent tweets, calling the judge who blocked his travel ban a “so-called judge.”

“Although President Trump has promised a whole new way of governing, he has been caught up in a traditional conundrum of American public life. When Trump denounced the ‘so-called judge’ who temporarily suspended the administration’s immigrant ban, Trump tapped into the longstanding public belief that many judicial decisions are influenced by political factors. At the same time, when Trump presented his Supreme Court nominee Judge Gorsuch as a jurist exclusively guided by constitutional principle, Trump tapped into the longstanding public trust of judges as impartial arbiters of law. Like virtually all elected officials, Trump wants to have his cake and to eat too, praising the judges he likes as paragons of impartiality and criticizing the judges he dislikes as mere politicians in robes. The question will be whether Trump, a most unconventional politician, will be able to successfully sustain the thoroughly conventional claim that all judges are political—except when they are not.”

Professor Bybee is available to speak to media about this issue. Please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, director of news and public relations, at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or 315.443.1897