Right On: John Roberts Is Playing the Long Game
Aghast at the decisions of the last Supreme Court term, conservatives caricatured John Roberts as a leftist. He most certainly is not.
This article is for subscribers only.
With the Supreme Court poised to reconvene the first Monday in October, let’s clear the air about last term’s supposed turn to the left: It didn’t happen.
The confusion is understandable. On June 25, Chief Justice John Roberts led a 6-3 majority that upheld President Obama’s health-care reform program in the face of a partisan Republican attack. The next day, the high court vindicated same-sex unions by a 5-4 vote. The two liberal victories created the illusion of something larger and more dramatic, prompting the hyperbolic wing of the Republican Party to condemn the supposed leftward lurch. Curt Levey, president of the Committee for Justice, a right-leaning advocacy group, declared Roberts “dead to conservatives.”