John Roberts

The missing statesmanship

Featured image Chief Justice Roberts is a practitioner judicial statesmanship that is occasionally difficult for an outsider to understand. Most famously, Roberts switched his vote on the constitutionality of Obamacare in the face of President Obama’s intimidation. It was a sorry performance that invited more of the same from those for whom it’s all politics. In Dobbs, Roberts’s statesmanship resulted in an eccentric concurring opinion that none of his colleagues on either »

The Chief Justice’s middle course in Dobbs

Featured image After the oral argument in Dobbs, only two outcomes seem possible. Either the Supreme Court will overrule Roe v. Wade or it will uphold the Mississippi statute prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy without overruling Roe. Chief Justice Roberts seems to prefer the second outcome. The questions are: (1) does he have a theory to support it and (2) does he have a conservative Justice who will go along »

Finally—The Court as It Should Be!

Featured image The current term of the Supreme Court has delivered a lot “huh???” moments, with the Court botching cases, dodging cases, and yielding a lot of decisions with very strange splits among the justices with little or no ideological clarity. But as Paul noted earlier, today we finally got two major rulings against leftist totems by the 6 – 3 split we’ve long been promised—on voting rights/safeguarding ballot integrity, and protecting donors »

Roberts rules

Featured image Today comes word via Senator Rand Paul that Chief Justice Roberts will not preside over any Senate impeachment trial of President Trump: the text of the Constitution only requires the Chief Justice to preside over the trial of “the President.” Trump is no longer “the President.” Roberts’s presence is therefore not called for. Trump is of course a private citizen at this point. The constitutional text does not appear to »

Chief Justice Roberts finds another way for conservatives to lose [UPDATED]

Featured image As expected, the Supreme Court today ruled in favor of abortion providers in June Medical Services v. Russo. It struck down a Louisiana law that required abortionists to maintain admitting privileges at a local hospital in order to perform abortions. The vote was 5-4. Chief Justice Roberts joined the liberal majority. Justice Breyer wrote the majority opinion. Four years ago, Roberts reached the opposite result in a Texas case in »

Roberts rules

Featured image Senate Minority Leader Schumer seems to have thought he might get 50 votes for the Dems’ motion to add “witnesses” and “documents” to the case assembled by the House impeachment managers. Planning ahead, Schumer wondered what might happen in the event of a tie vote on the Dems’ motion. Schumer raised the issue by way of an “inquiry” to Chief Justice Roberts this past Friday, seeking to have Roberts commit »

From Paul Sperry’s notebook

Featured image Behind the impeachment of President Trump lies the “whistleblower” whose identity the mainstream media have carefully protected from disclosure. The Democrats have classified it Sensitive Compartmented Information. This must account for the media have blackout. At RealClearInvestigations, Paul Sperry (@paulsperry) has refused to abide by the blackout “rules.” He explored the back story in his deeply reported 4,000-word investigative account “Whistleblower Was Overheard in ’17 Discussing With Ally How to »

Rand Paul’s question

Featured image Chief Justice Roberts declined to read a question submitted by Senator Rand Paul during the ongoing question and answer session in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump today. He declined to read the question and he failed to offer an explanation (video below). Senator @RandPaul sends question to the desk during Impeachment Trial. Chief Justice Roberts: "The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted." pic.twitter.com/CCeB33HnRP — CSPAN »

Washington Post columnist blames John Roberts for “impeachment mess”

Featured image Who is to blame for the impeachment of President Trump? It has to be either Trump or the House that impeached him. Or maybe a combination of the two. But the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank claims that, somehow, the “mess” is Chief Justice Roberts’s fault. Milbank is the Post’s clown prince. He’ll say anything, usually with as much snark as he can muster, to try to score a point against »