Yet because it is so clear that he is crafting opinions with this end in mind, the chief justice defeats his own aims. By striving so conspicuously to depoliticize the Supreme Court, he has brought about the very thing he hoped to prevent: No one has done more to politicize the court than the chief justice. In a remarkable exercise in broken-field running, the chief justice (joined by his liberal colleagues) dodged and wove through the legal issues. The Supreme Court acquiesced in the 1930s to the threat of court-packing. It was also proof of the ultimate futility of Roberts’s strategy: The appointment of a Supreme Court justice right before a presidential election is just the sort of thing depoliticizing the court ought to avert.

Source: Washington Post December 17, 2020 19:26 UTC