Theres a lot of commentary, some people saying its a win for congress and the prosecutors, some for trump, what do you think . Well, it is a split decision and frankly it was john roberts finest day, a lot of controversy, here he managed to hold together two 72 coalitions, alito and thomas were sort of with him in general, they meanted even more basically. The cases will now continue. Its not a slam dunk that we are going to see the tax returns tomorrow or anything like that, and effectively pushes it past the election, but the really thread of the needle in min takenning the balance among separation of powers between legislative and executive branches as well as federalism with state inquiries into the federal executive. Paul i think i disagree with you. What i worry about is what alito talked about, 2200 local prosecutors, a lot of them politically motivated. The courts did set up standards but i wonder how strict they are going to be and how strict local strict federal judges and other judges will be in policing partisan who is want to harass a president . Well, remember, the courts still left it open to the lower courts and state courts to evaluate other defenses that the president s lawyers will be raising such as responding to these or having to deal with, detract from his ability, and that sort of thing. Hes facing hundreds of subpoenas at the same time that will end up being blocked because its a true intrusion in federal office. Paul is it fair to say its chief roberts court, but on the controversial cases, hes a decisive vote . Well, its definitively the roberts court. He was in the majority but two cases, 12 of 13 cases that went 5 to 4 and hes not turned to the left, hes not become a squish of some sort but absolutely, he is trying to navigate in his own way a way to preserve the courts legitimacy, thats his goal, to depoliticize it. It is his court. Hes not a swing justice, per se, but the median vote. Paul lets talk about his juries prudence because Anthony Kennedy who was the swing vote previously, there are a couple of things that animated him, one was individual rights and liberties. Another was federalism. You could really identify those with Anthony Kennedy, what animates in legal terms, what animates, what philosophy animates roberts . You cant describe it in legal terms. Thats part of the problem. [laughter] strategy animates him or trying to make moves and make votes that will make the court look good that will preserve institutional reputation, those are the sorts of factors that hes attuned to, any judicial philosophy, minimalism or any broad theories like that. Its never getting too far from public opinion. Taking good account of whats taking out and if joe biden is elected in the fall he will vote more conservatively than if trump is reelected, for example, its all of that kind of strategy and tactics to shape as the chief justice the courts perception in body of politics. Paul what youre saying and, correct me if im wrong, hes highly political, that in terms he is without being partisan, without being ideological, hes political in maneuvering the court and trying his best to position it and extricate from toxic political cloud which Public Discourse lives. Paul a lot of democrats on capitol hill, prominent senators basically threatened the court that if you rule the wrong way in certain cases the gun case in new york was a good example, theyd threatened the court with restructuring. Do you think some of the threats are influencing the chief in how he maneuvers the court . I dont know. Its hard to know whats going on inside his head, but it looks that way to a lot of people in the sense that it looks like just as in the obamacare case 8 years ago, whether he changed his vote and used the power, construction because of pressure he felt from president obama and other politicians and whatever, or just because he thought thats the way to preserve the courts institutional role. At the end of the day it doesnt really matter. Hes seen as tacking back and forth for nonlegal grounds. You can debate whether you agree or disagree with the legal theories of different justices. With roberts, he is your right acting in a very political way and ironically its when the court, roberts specifically are trying to think about the courts legitimacy that they act least legitimately. Paul yeah, well, thats the question that comes up, is that good for the court, is that kind of positioning, if the public begins to perceive, ruling for political reasons, that cant be healthy for the court. I dont think it is. I dont think that john roberts is succeeding on his own terms. At the end of the day, respect for the court, if you measure it by public polling, well, republicans will like opinions that are more conservatives and democrats with results more liberal. Theyre not really looking at, you know, what those of us who follow the court closely are looking at in terms of legal theories and what have you. In perceiving principle, not principle to theories of laws i think hes detracting from from the courts Public Perception of legitimacy. Paul thank you very much. When we come back as both sides declare victory in high courts ruling on President Trump tax returns our panel looks at the political fallout from the pair of decisions as well as the other big cases of the term. What has been underscored him after all of the rulings is that, you know, we need more conservative justices on the court. I dont keep track of regrets and i dont add up the years, but what i do count on. Is boost high protein. And now, theres boost mobility. With key nutrients to help support. Joints, muscles, and bones. Try boost mobility, with added collagen. Its not good news for the president of the United States, 7 to 2, even the president s appointees saying, president of the United States is not above the law. Paul nancy pelosi saying thursday Supreme Court decision was not good news for President Trump even as the justices blocked House Democrats from getting his tax returns for now. The House Speaker calling the high courts decision a victory for the constitution and vowing that congress will continue to press its case in the lower court. Lets bring in our panel, wall street journal columnist and Deputy Editor dan henninger, columnist kim strassel and Editorial Board member kyle peterson. Kim, you wrote this week disagreeing with the House Speaker on her take and you say it was a defeat for democrats, how so . Kimberley in my mind the ruling that came in about in particular which dealt with congressional subpoenas for the first time layed out some tests that congress has to hit if it wants to obtain and get subpoenas against the executive branch demand my mind that does put new restrictions on congress and what it can do and makes it harder Going Forward for them to get information. Paul you know, if i disagree a little bit with that, kim, if that was kimberley i know you do. Paul if that was real disruption on congress, here is the prong test and they dont meet it and we are demanding it back to the court. Thats what i wonder about. Kimberley so i totally agree with that, the decision that Clarence Thomas likes to say should have gone further. [laughter] kimberley they should have got rid of it and said you failed, so try again, but this was a concession roberts clearly made to get the liberals on the court to go along with him. Paul okay, all right, kyle let me ask you about the term more broadly, other cases, big victories for religious liberty this week. How significant are they . Kyle i think they are very significant. Roberts is very strong on religious liberty. The two cases, both 72 uphold ing broad concessions for catholic nuns, Little Sisters of the poor who dont want to have contraceptive plans and schools to hire and fire teachers as they please essentially. Paul so it was interesting a couple of liberal justices signed onto broadens of the ministerial and you can fire teachers for religious purposes. Does that mean that we are really seeing a court that is going to be much more receptive to free exercise of religion cases . Kyle well, i think thats part of it. The decision was 72 which was not quite as strong. The last case on the exception at a Lutheran School was 90, Unanimous Court that time. The facts are a little different here, but yeah, the opinion of the court by Justice Alito essentially said that the federal government has no business getting involved with schools, religious schools, trying to figure out why they why they chose not to renew a teachers account. Paul dan, two new justices, one for a couple of years, neil gorsuch and brett kavanaugh. How did you how do you see them emerging on the court . Whats notable about them . Daniel well, i think that whats notable about them is that obviously as the saying goes they have their own minds and at times when they are going to surprise us especially Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh i think is sensitive shall we say to the political wins inside the court and occasionally i believe he aligns himself with Justice Roberts and gives him some support as well. But i think we have to look forward to the future as well, paul, there probable write is going to be a vacancy on the court, maybe this year or during next president ial term and if joe biden wins the election, i dont think theres any possibility that the democrats would nominate another steven briar or elena keggan, too moderate. The next liberal nominee would be left of sonia sotomayor, thats how polarized law has become in the United States, so i think maybe we are seeing with Justice Briar and elena keagan occasionally siding with the conservatives. Dont expect that if joe biden wins the presidency. Paul kim, do you think this is the conservative court, a lot of people thought theyd get with gorsuch and kavanaugh . Kimberley i think they have been solid conservative votes, i do. There are times when they have surprised us, but if you look at their Overall Record for this last term, they are largely with the alito and thomas on the courts and the real question with john roberts. Hes the swing vote, hes the Anthony Kennedy of the court who does seem to be more focused on the courts reputation than questions of solid juries prudence at times. Paul and so do you think that he is he is politicizing the court in the kind of wrong way as being hyperpolitical and too sensitive to the to what people outside the court might think . I can tell you that clarence and samuel alito dont think so. They are not worried about what people say. Kimberley well, right, they dont care, what really worries me, paul, when you bend this way you encourage more of the same attacks from the left and the threats that they have been making to remake the court and instead of standing up to that. Paul all right, thank you, kim, when we come back as President Trump pushes states to reopen schools in the fall, a look at the politics at play and the obstacles ahead. We have to open our schools, open our schools, stop this nonsense. We open our schools. Theyre going to be paying for this for a long time. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident, even if its your fault. Cut sonny. Was that good . Line the desert never lies. Isnt that what i said . No you were talking about allstate and insurance. I just. When i. Lets try again. Everybody back to one. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. Whove got their eczema under control. 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Well, xfinity makes moving super easy. I can transfer my internet and tv service in about a minute. Wow, that is easy. Almost as easy as having those guys help you move. We are those guys. Thats you . The truck adds 10 pounds. In the arms. Okay. Transfer your Service Online in a few easy steps. Now thats simple, easy, awesome. Transfer your service in minutes, making moving with xfinity a breeze. Visit xfinity. Com moving today. We hope that most schools are going to be open. We dont want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons. I they keep schools closed, no way. They will put pressure on governors and everybody to open the schools to get them open and its very important, its very important for our country and very important for the wellbeing of the student and the parents. Paul saying the nations Economic Health and wellbeing of students and parents depend on it. Threatening to withhold federal funding from schools that do not resume inperson instruction in the fall. We are back with dan henninger, kim strassel and wall street journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow jason riley. Jason, everything about covid19 is politicized now why not going back to school . Seems like we are going to have a fight over that. What do you make of the arguments and the case for going back to school . Jason i think the president is right. Hes on very solid ground. Its what the education evidence tells us about the importance of inperson learning and frankly, paul, this sort of partial reopening where kids go back a few days or home a few days isnt feasible to the vast majority of families in this country. You know, school doubles as child care for a lot of families, particularly lowincome families where both parents work and if kids cant go back to school, parents cant go back to work and so i think the president is on quite solid ground here. He also understands that this little impromp to experiments with distant learning did not go over very well in terms of school attendance, in terms of School Instruction and so we already had an achievement gap in the country and delaying reopening is only going to exacerbate that achievement gap. Paul yeah, kim,i i know you wrote for us, you had good experience with your children in school but i can tell you that isnt universe sell and the evidence for a lot of cases kids lost essentially a half a year this year and if you dont open for half year, thats a full year of instruction and that puts them behind. What about the health issue . Do you think its safe for children to go back . Kimberley yeah, by the way, we have realworld examples of this. We know that its safe. You had the president tweeting about certain European Countries that have gone back to school. I happened to be looking at what they did in the netherlands where the kids have been back since may, in fact, the beginning of may and their National Institute of Public Health only recently updated a document saying, look, we dont have a problem here because children make up relatively few cases and they play a minor role in spread and they do not even advocate children 17 and younger need to maintain social distancing at school. They point out that the big issue is adults giving the virus to kids, not kids giving it to each other or to adults. Paul would you feel safe bringing your kids back to school . Kimberley oh, yeah, absolutely, day one. Paul dan, that still leaves the teachers, of course, and they play a big role here and the teachers unions and some supporters in School Districts are basically saying we are not going to go back until we think the terms are safe enough and, in fact, thats going to require a lot more money. How do you think this is going to go from the teachers point of view . Daniel well, if they belong to the union they will go along with the union, paul, because they want more money. Look, im a little bit embliviant and as jason pointed out, huge achievement gap in the United States. Its not as though American Public schools are a beacon of performance in the United States. I think, yeah, we have to probably restore the function of these schools, parents cant stay home from work forever, the archdiocese will close because most parent, inner city parents cant afford to send kids to school, nonetheless, the teachers unions are opposing the whole thing and they are doing the holdup, states and the federal government for more money, and something rubs me the wrong way that the reopening of the schools is just going to be so that the teachers can go back to work without any pressure being put on this failing American PublicSchool System to do better than it does. Its a stopgap. Paul jason, are we headed here to a Major Political showdown between President Trump and some of the other political leaders who want to say, lets open up, weve got to open up and the unions who may say, no, you better fork up, i dont know, tens of billions of dollars or else we