Chief Justice John Roberts has shattered societal and political expectations of the conservative Supreme Court and thrust it — and his stewardship — to the center of the national scene.
WashingtonChief Justice John Roberts has shattered societal and political expectations of the conservative Supreme Court and thrust it — and his stewardship — to the center of the national scene.
In a series of striking moves on immigration, LGBTQ rights and now abortion, Roberts has sided with the court’s four liberal justices and established himself as one of the most influential figures in America today.
His decision Monday to invalidate a Louisiana regulation on physicians who perform abortions affirms a 2016 ruling — that he protested at the time — and continues to preserve a woman’s decades-old constitutional right to end a pregnancy.
Although he did not join the four liberals‘ legal reasoning, likely stirring more anti-abortion litigation in the states, Roberts‘ move marked the first time he had ever voted to strike down an abortion regulation.
John Roberts sides with liberals on Supreme Court to block controversial Louisiana abortion law
Last week, the 65-year-old appointee of Republican President George W. Bush similarly cast the pivotal fifth vote to reject the Trump administration’s elimination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Obama-era initiative that protects young undocumented immigrants. He also voted to extend US anti-bias law to gay, lesbian and transgender workers.
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These recent actions reflect his broader choice, in the tumultuous time of coronavirus and racial strife under the presidency of Donald Trump this election year, to put the institutional integrity of the Supreme Court over personal ideology.
Roberts, whose Washington career traces to the Reagan administration in the 1980s, has always held conservative instincts and social values. In very rare instances has he broken from those moorings.
Overall, he has produced conservative rulings, including to curtail the reach of the Voting Rights Act, making it harder to prevent arguably discriminatory election procedures before they took effect. He joined the bare five-justice majorities that produced the 2010 Citizens United decision lifting limits on corporate and union money in elections and the 2008 decision declaring an individual Second Amendment right to bear arms.
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For years the one exception to his pattern on the right wing was his 2012 decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, famously regarding the health care law’s individual insurance requirement a tax.
After that vote, Roberts faced right-wing wrath for joining the court’s liberals to uphold the law.
