"We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges," he said in a statement. "What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for."

The rebuke to President Trump issued by Chief Justice John Roberts over criticism of an "Obama judge" was wrong in two different ways. The New York Times gleefully reported on the scolding from the head of the federal judiciary:

The chief justice is just about as believable insisting that politics doesn't affect the judiciary as Iran's President Ahmadinejad was when he told a Columbia University audience that there are no gays in Iran. Groucho Marx articulated the dilemma with the immortal line, "Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?"

Or, as Mark Levin posted on Facebook:

It appears John Roberts doesn't live in the real world. A few decades ago he understood that there are, in fact, too many progressive judges and justices who legislate from the bench. Indeed, when it came to Obamacare, Roberts himself led the court's leftists in rewriting the Constitution and imposing that damnable law on all of us. We don't need any lectures from him. Indeed, he should be admonishing his own branch of government for its outrageous activism rather than playing to the media by attacking the president. Classless.

Roberts has remained silent as a series of outrageous decisions from federal district judges has substituted a single judge's decision on what the POTUS should do for the authority granted to the chief executive by the Constitution.

Another time that the chief justice remained silent happened in the 2010 State of the Union Address, when President Obama explicitly attacked the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United, and his colleague, Justice Alito, mouthed "Not true," only to be rebuked by many commentators.

President Trump fired back (as he characteristically does) this morning:

Justice Roberts can say what he wants, but the 9th Circuit is a complete & total disaster. It is out of control, has a horrible reputation, is overturned more than any Circuit in the Country, 79%, & is used to get an almost guaranteed result. Judges must not Legislate Security... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2018

....and Safety at the Border, or anywhere else. They know nothing about it and are making our Country unsafe. Our great Law Enforcement professionals MUST BE ALLOWED TO DO THEIR JOB! If not there will be only bedlam, chaos, injury and death. We want the Constitution as written! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2018

For at least six decades, courts have been legislating from the bench, and finally a president has taken this on. We can expect the entire institutional weight of the establishment to come down hard on him. The only thing Trump has going for his position is reality.