I never suggested we limit his free speech. Instead I would hope Trump would have the intellectual intelligence to control his speech by himself.
The legitemacy of the courts as 1/3rd of our government took a while to establish and Trump's comments undermine that. Sure, there are always people not happy with the way courts are going but we have to recognize the integrity of the courts even if we don't like some of the decisions. The courts serve as a check and balance of power in government and we risk destabilizing a fundamental institution all for Trump's ignorance or arrogance or whatever it is that makes his brain work the way it does.
Imagine you had prosecutor's telling you the cops are crappy, or vice versa. Do you think that would really instill confidence in the system?
The legitimacy of the courts were undermined long before Trump came into office. Trump is just pointing out the partisan politics has invaded the SCOTUS. You are blaming him for something is incabable of doing since the partisan nature and thus the illegitimacy of the SCOTUS has been known for decades before he became president. I know you have your opinion and you disagree. But you really can’t deny Trump’s words can’t deligitimize something that has been that way long before he came into office.
Now, if you don’t like his words, I can certainly understand that. I don’t like him saying things regarding the SCOTUS either. But we live in a country that has the 1st amendment and I will defend is complaint even if I don’t like it. Do I think he should have said that? No, I don’t. I don’t think it was a wise move. But I will defend his right to say it. I think he is not making any friends by doing that. And I think there should be some respect shown towards the POTUS and towards the SCOTUS. But he is the president we have, like him or not.
As soon as the left were able to get judges into the courts that were willing to rule on a political partisan line, they realized they don’t have to vote on legislation and they can make law through the SCOTUS. I want SCOTUS justices that rule according to the way the constitution is written and rule according to the intent of the way the constitution was intended to be interpreted. Unbiased along political lines. Unfortunately, things are not that way any more. Thus, the illigimate nature of the SCOTUS exists. As long as we still have a majority of justices that interpret the law and the constitution they way it was intended, then the SCOTUS is has an air of legitimacy. But as long as the 3 or 4 Democrat justices left continue to rule on the side of politics over the law, the court is a joke. And has been for a long time. My feeling is if you have 9 unbiased impartial judges then you will mostly have 9-0, 8-1 or even 7-2 rulings 90% or more of the time. But when rulings regularly fall along partisan lines consistently, things are obviously illigimate to some (more or less) extent.
The one thing I want to say something about Trump’s complaints against the SCOTUS. While I think Trump has a right to say what he said, and I don’t think it was a good idea for him to say it. I think it was worse for justice Kennedy to defend all judges by saying none are partisan and all are unbiased was out of line for him to say. It was an obvious lie on his part and everyone is laughing at him and his comment. I honestly feel that what he said was quite ironic as I see his defense and words as being quite partisan in nature. JMHO