Mourning Chief Justice Roberts's 20th Anniversary Part II: Top Ten Worst Moments of the Roberts Court
Two weeks ago, in recognition of the twentieth anniversary of John Roberts being named as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, I listed what I thought were the top ten worst cases of the Roberts Court. Below are the top ten worst moments of the last twenty years unrelated to the Court's decisions. These are in no particular order and with one exception include examples from justices other than the Chief. 1) Umpire-in Chief Okay, technically this happened before John Roberts was confirmed, but it did foreshadow the next two decades. At his confirmation hearing, Roberts uttered these words that will live in infamy: Judges and Justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires don’t make the rules, they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules, but it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ball game to see the umpire. Judges have to have the humility to recognize that they op...