Trump can criticize judges all he likes. Lincoln did.

Lincoln believed that Dred Scott was wrongly decided, so he had no intention of acknowledging it “as a political rule.”

What Trump has done to Robart is similar to what Lincoln did to Taney. Trump has criticized the judge and the decision and has appealed the judge’s ruling, but he has followed the erroneous order in the particular case. Trump is therefore squarely within the Abraham Lincoln camp on how the president ought to behave as to judges.

Lincoln reiterated his opinion on presidential criticism of judges in his First Inaugural Address. He acknowledged that “some constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court” and recognized that the Court’s decisions “are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel cases by all other departments of the Government.” But none of that meant the Court was above criticism…