John Roberts Doesn't Look Like a Centrist After All

Think Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is a centrist? Think again, per Joan Biskupic, who pens an exclusive piece for CNN on the behind-the-scenes machinations regarding the high court's recent ruling in favor of presidential immunity. Biskupic notes that Roberts has often been viewed as the voice of compromise, with an "institutionalist tendency [that] had been cemented over the past two decades." The presidential immunity case, however, squashes that perspective, with Biskupic writing that Roberts, "now 69 and about to begin his 20th term, appears to have abandoned his usual institutional concerns." She adds that the chief justice "appears to have reached a turning point." "His vision for the high court became more aggressive, and he has perhaps shed the aura of ineffectualness that permeated some public commentary in recent years," Biskupic writes.

Most notably, "there was an immediate and clear 6-3 split" in the presidential immunity case, with Roberts making "no serious effort to entice the three liberal justices for even a modicum of the cross-ideological agreement that distinguished such presidential-powers cases in the past," Biskupic writes. "He believed he could persuade people to look beyond Trump." She adds that of late, Roberts has "kept the most important cases for himself," and that the high court's most conservative justices have been "heartened by Roberts, after years of suspicions about his efforts at the center of the bench."

• Reaction: Writing for MSNBC in response to Biskupic's piece, Jordan Rubin suggests that Roberts' "institutionalist reputation has long been overblown" and that "the immunity episode ... suggests that the chief justice is not only eager to be in on the court's rightward march but wants to lead the way."

• Reaction II: Kathryn Rubino also takes on Roberts, noting for Above the Law that it's been a "huge mistake" for liberals to give the chief justice "a lifetime 'reasonableness card' on a court that has drifted well right of center."
• And more: The law website also gathers responses from others on Biskupic's analysis. "We need to have a long talk about John Roberts the twinkle eyed institutionalist. Preferably before the election," writes lawyer and journalist Dahlia Lithwick. Norm Ornstein is even more blunt, writing, "John Roberts is by far the worst Chief Justice ever."

Roberts, meanwhile, hasn't commented on the Biskupic's piece. More from her here. Biskupic also penned a piece earlier this week on the inner workings of the Supreme Court case regarding Idaho's strict abortion ban, in which "a combination of misgivings among key conservatives and rare leverage on the part of liberal justices changed the course of the case." (More US Supreme Court stories.)