The Supreme Court has been making headlines this month after a leak of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
However, the court has suffered another, lower-profile leak. Specifically, Chief Justice John Roberts has seen his remarks leak to journalists… and he appears to be losing clout among the other justices.
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Summarizing the second leak, The Washington Post reported:
As of last week, the majority of five justices to strike Roe remains intact, according to three conservatives close to the court who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter
A person close to the most conservative members of the court said Roberts told his fellow jurists in a private conference in early December that he planned to uphold the state law and write an opinion that left Roe and Casey in place for now. But the other conservatives were more interested in an opinion that overturned the precedents, the person said…
Most observers of the court believe Roberts is still promoting a decision that would remove the viability line but otherwise keep Roe and Casey intact. Both liberals and conservatives are skeptical it can be done.
“He is a magnificent lawyer,” Miguel Estrada, who frequently argues before the Supreme Court, told a conference of judges and lawyers last week in Atlanta. “I’ll be interested to see what he comes up with.”
In other words, Roberts appears to be promoting an opinion designed to limit the reach of the other conservatives. To do so, he needs at only one of the five other Republican appointees to join him.
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Roberts has occasionally joined the court’s Democrat-appointed bloc. On a few occasions, he’s even cast the deciding vote in favor of this bloc. Most famously, he voted to preserve some form of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate in 2012.
However, Roberts can no longer limit the court’s conservative majority by himself. After all, the court now has six Republican-appointed justices, not five. Roberts now needs to convince another conservative to join him.
In other words, Roberts will test his clout during the court’s upcoming decision about abortion, if his leaked remarks are any indication.
The Horn editorial team