Long John

“Roberts is a capable tactician who understands history, public opinion, and how much pressure any one institution can withstand without breaking. He may also be one of the only sitting justices who understands how the modern news cycle works, and he has managed to surf that cycle flawlessly, this term as in prior years. If he has a superpower, it is that he knows how to do consequential things in small ways, at a moment in which everyone else is swinging for the fences.” Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick on the Supreme Court’s latest abortion ruling and the Chief Justice’s long game. John Roberts Isn’t a Liberal. He’s a Perfectionist Who Wants to Win.

+ The New Yorker: “Roberts, I think, unlike Brett Kavanaugh, wants to look as if he cares about precedent. And he couldn’t in good conscience do that while voting to uphold this law. So it means that respect for precedent will carry some kind of weight with this majority. But it also means that, if there is some way to convince Roberts that he can save face and still undo abortion rights, he will probably take it.”

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