Joan Biskupic describes the would be Heroism of John Roberts...

Political Observer replies.

Headline: The inside story of how John Roberts failed to save abortion rights

Chief Justice John Roberts privately lobbied fellow conservatives to save the constitutional right to abortion down to the bitter end, but May's unprecedented leak of a draft opinion reversing Roe v. Wade made the effort all but impossible, multiple sources familiar with negotiations told CNN.

It appears unlikely that Roberts' best prospect -- Justice Brett Kavanaugh -- was ever close to switching his earlier vote, despite Roberts' attempts that continued through the final weeks of the session.

New details obtained by CNN provide insight into the high-stakes internal abortion-rights drama that intensified in late April when justices first learned the draft opinion would soon be published. Serious conflicts over the fate of the 1973 Roe were then accompanied by tensions over an investigation into the source of the leak that included obtaining cell phone data from law clerks and some permanent court employees.

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https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/26/politics/supreme-court-john-roberts-abortion-dobbs

As a reader of Joan Biskupic’s near hagiography of Scalia:

Biscupic’s career can now be defined by the construction political apologetics, for Neo-Confederate/Originalist/Textualist members of The Supreme Court. Roberts now is the featured player in her Political/Moral Melodrama. Framed by ‘new details obtained by CNN’ the anonymous source … Perhaps the source that ‘leaked’ the Alito memo is that ‘source’?

Scalia’s book ‘A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law’ was reviewed by Robert Post in the June 11, 1998 issue of The New York Review of Books: ‘Robert Post is Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law at Yale Law School.’ at the time of the essay. A bit heavy on the bowing and scarping, for my taste, but highly informative of the jurisprudential posing, that Scalia adopts.

One other clue of Justice Roberts’ lack of any semblance of heroism, can be found in his Majority Opinion in Shelby County v. Holder in which Scalia’s rhetorical contribution resorts to a riff on the ‘argument by analogy’, the notorious ‘Red-head canard’ that rendered Roberts’ meager Majority Opinion, into the realm of comic caricature. Ginsberg, by offering sound empirical evidence, that the ‘pre-clearance proviso’ must be enforced , it being the sine qua non of The Voting Rights Act! The rise of the Republican control of State Legislatures, that control Voting Laws, in what was once called ‘The Solid South’, was a thought or argument anathema to the Majority.

Biskupic continues to embroider on her theme, of the courage of Roberts, as conscience/unifier :

In the past, Roberts himself has switched his vote, or persuaded others to do so, toward middle-ground, institutionalist outcomes, such as saving the Affordable Care Act. It's a pattern that has generated suspicion among some right-wing justices and conservatives outside the court.

Multiple sources told CNN that Roberts' overtures this spring, particularly to Kavanaugh, raised fears among conservatives and hope among liberals that the chief could change the outcome in the most closely watched case in decades. Once the draft was published by Politico, conservatives pressed their colleagues to try to hasten release of the final decision, lest anything suddenly threaten their majority.

Roberts' persuasive efforts, difficult even from the start, were thwarted by the sudden public nature of the state of play. He can usually work in private, seeking and offering concessions, without anyone beyond the court knowing how he or other individual justices have voted or what they may be writing.

There are a mere 1,781 words remaining in this essay. I’ll use Biskupic's list of sub-titles, as a measure of the melodramatic reach, or should it be named an instance of a Political Telenovela? With the aid of Chapter Headings…

Conservatives anticipated Roberts' actions 

Ginsburg's death opened the door to justices reconsidering Roe 

Texas law S.B. 8 revealed conservatives' mindset 

Alito draft leak seals the vote count

 Political Observer