We have exactly the wrong justices

NOT SINCE THE pro-slavery Taney court before the American Civil War has a Supreme Court been so wrong for its moment in history as the Roberts court that opens a new term on Monday.

- JACKIE CALMES COLUMNIST

PRESIDENT TRUMP greets, from left, Justices Elena Kagan, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett in March.

Led by John G. Roberts Jr., the George W. Bush appointee who marked his 20th anniversary as chief justice last Monday, the nation's highest court with its 6-3 right-wing supermajority has ignored norms and precedents to mostly give a green light to the most lawless president in U.S. history, Donald Trump.

Thus enabled, the wannabe authoritarian, who picked three of the justices, often praises their rulingseven as he lambastes and invites threats to the many lower-court judges whose adverse orders the Supreme Court has blocked in its deference to the president. The White House website keeps a running tally of the victories.

"How the Roberts Court became the Trump Court" was the fitting headline last week on an analysis from CNN correspondent and longtime court biographer Joan Biskupic. She quotes Michael Klarman, a professor of American legal history at Harvard Law School, who slammed Roberts for "appeasing the autocrat," and added, "The basic lesson of the 20th Century is that doesn't work."

A quarter through the 21st century, Americans seem doomed to relearn that lesson. The term ahead will further test the Supreme Court as a pumped-up Trump pushes the bounds of presidential power.

Many of its decisions have been temporary wins for him, blocking lower-court orders pending further litigation.

The coming months will tell whether Trump's W's are permanent: Various cases will return for the justices to finally decide on the merits, with fully argued opinions instead of the one-sentence slapdash orders they've been putting out.