Chief Justice Roberts: America’s Chief Guardian of Corporate Power
When the Supreme Court’s new term opens today, public attention will be focused on the furious and hypocritical effort of President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to ram through Judge Amy Coney Barrett as a replacement for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the voters remove both Trump and McConnell from power. The Senate Republican majority’s willingness to turn somersaults to distinguish this situation from the rationale they used to deny President Obama’s Court nominee a vote, or even a hearing, eight months prior to the 2016 election, is motivated in large part by their perception that Chief Justice Roberts is not a reliable conservative vote.
But isn’t he?
The end of the Supreme Court’s 2019-2020 term last June saw a flurry of analysis of the chief justice’s role on the Court and his legacy.