"Alot of attention has been paid to the Trump administration's assault on public health and science over the past 10 months. Members of Trump's administration past and present, from Elon Musk at DOGE, to Russell Vought at the Office of Management and Budget, RFK Jr. at Health and Human Services, and functionaries like Jay Bhattacharya at the National Institutes of Health and Marty Makary at the Food and Drug Administration, have rightly been criticized for their scorched-earth decimation of federal agencies, hobbling much of our capacity to keep public health and science moving forward in this country."
"But there is one man who has escaped blame for all that has been happening to public health and science, and who has received more than a certain amount of deference by virtue of his position since the beginning of this administration: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. In many ways, Roberts is the key enabler of the carnage we've seen roll out across the nation through his own deference to this president. In fact, he is more than an enabler-all he does regularly sends a signal to this administration: Keep going, we will not stop you."
Over the past ten months the Trump administration has systematically undermined public health and scientific capacity through appointments and policies that weakened federal agencies. High-profile appointees and officials at agencies such as OMB, HHS, NIH, and FDA contributed to the decimation and hobbling of agency functions. The GOP-led Congress largely acquiesced or supported these moves while Democrats resisted a clean continuing resolution and sought protections against impoundment of appropriated funds. Chief Justice John Roberts' deference to the president has functioned as an enabling signal, reducing judicial restraint and permitting further erosion of public-health and science safeguards.
Read at The Nation
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]