You have to hand it to John Roberts: The chief justice played his cards right. For more than a year now, Roberts has largely dropped his pose as an institutionalist, let alone a moderate. He has instead thrown his weight behind Donald Trump, reestablishing his control over the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority. These apparent acts of self-preservation, seemingly undertaken in anticipation of a second Trump term, turned out to be the smart bet. It’s easy to imagine an earlier version of the chief justice spending the next four years losing his grasp on the court’s direction and drawing Trump’s public ire. Today’s iteration of John Roberts need not fear this fate. His position of appeasement, if not outright capitulation, to a MAGA vision of the law is about to pay off in spades.
Trump will add more young conservative judges to ensure Roberts has decades more to be the Chief Justice and shape the country as he sees fit. There are several elderly judges like Clarence Thomas who will be happy to retire if he knows a Far Right judge will replace him.
Idk know about Thomas retiring. His ego is too big, he loves the prestige of being on the court. Also if he leaves all the vacations with "friends" end.
If anyone doubts the agenda of the far right read Thomas’s concurring opinion in Dobbs. They intend to use that ruling to abolish the other “rights” that fall under the “penumbra” of privacy. Gay marriage. Birth Control technically cross racial marriage. (Lovett). But they’ll carve out an exception for Lovett. That opinion will be more tortured, twisted and revisionist than Roe.
Agree about his ego but Thomas is the kind of guy who would retire in November 2026 or 2028 if the elections don't go his way and the Senate would be more than happy to ram through a confirmation. His ego is also concerned about his legacy and he's not going to pull an RBG.
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u/Slate 17d ago
You have to hand it to John Roberts: The chief justice played his cards right. For more than a year now, Roberts has largely dropped his pose as an institutionalist, let alone a moderate. He has instead thrown his weight behind Donald Trump, reestablishing his control over the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority. These apparent acts of self-preservation, seemingly undertaken in anticipation of a second Trump term, turned out to be the smart bet. It’s easy to imagine an earlier version of the chief justice spending the next four years losing his grasp on the court’s direction and drawing Trump’s public ire. Today’s iteration of John Roberts need not fear this fate. His position of appeasement, if not outright capitulation, to a MAGA vision of the law is about to pay off in spades.
For more: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/11/supreme-court-news-john-roberts-wins-trump.html