As head of the judicial department — the title is chief justice of america, not chief justice of the Supreme Courtroom — a chief justice has many duties, greater than 80 of them specified by federal statutes that convey wide-ranging authority. However contained in the “convention,” the court docket’s time period for the 9 justices as a collective, actual authority relies upon not on statutes however on qualities of management. A member of the court docket, individually confirmed to a life-tenured place, owes nothing to every other member. The one significant constraint on the justices’ interpersonal habits is horizontal, not vertical. Justices know they’ll accomplish little except there are 4 others keen to go alongside.
On the subject of a chief justice, respect owed to the workplace goes solely up to now. Actual respect needs to be earned. Chief Justice Warren Burger, who served from 1969 to 1986, by no means appeared to earn it from colleagues who considered him as pompous and manipulative. Some apparently discovered him so exasperating that they leaked unflattering particulars concerning the court docket generally and Burger particularly to the reporters Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong for his or her blockbuster greatest vendor, “The Brethren.”
His successor, William Rehnquist, had chafed beneath Chief Justice Burger for 15 years as an affiliate justice earlier than changing into chief justice in 1986. In necessary methods, he was Burger’s reverse, prized by his colleagues, together with these to his left, as a straight shooter who may very well be counted on to say precisely what he thought. One in every of his strengths was that removed from looking for to domesticate a public picture, he didn’t appear to care what others considered him. He as soon as skipped the president’s State of the Union deal with as a result of it conflicted along with his portray class on the native recreation middle. Far to the precise of the court docket he joined in 1972, he was typically a lone dissenter in his early years. As chief justice, though he by no means deserted his rules, he was keen to bend if it meant he may communicate for a unified court docket. In fact, because the court docket grew to become extra conservative with the arrival of latest Republican-appointed justices, he didn’t typically need to bend very far. The grief his colleagues expressed when he died in workplace at age 80 wasn’t professional forma. It was actual.
I’ve thought of Chief Justice Rehnquist as criticism of the court docket has intensified in the previous few months. He was a fierce defender of the court docket’s standing and prerogatives, utilizing his year-end “state of the judiciary” report to talk up for judicial independence and name out Congress for enacting laws with affect on the judiciary with out consulting the judicial department. (Chief Justice Roberts, to his credit score, did rebuke President Trump in 2018 for attacking a decide who had dominated towards his administration.) We’ll by no means know, clearly, however I believe Chief Justice Rehnquist would have drawn on his deep properly of capital contained in the court docket and located a option to let Justices Alito and Thomas know that recusal from the Trump immunity case could be extremely advisable even when not required. A raised eyebrow might need been adequate.
John Roberts clerked for Justice Rehnquist when he was an affiliate justice within the court docket’s 1980 time period. Whereas the 2 are mentioned to have been shut, their onerous wiring was definitely very totally different. The present chief justice maintains beautiful management of his public persona, to the extent that it’s onerous to think about a spontaneous John Roberts act. However some spontaneity is known as for now. His response to the Democratic senators was stiff and formulaic. If there’s a blueprint for addressing the problems now swirling across the court docket, it has eluded a chief justice who may not have acquired the institutional capital to name on in a time of want.
