Chief Justice Roberts’s Vote in an Abortion Case

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/opinion/letters/abortion-supreme-court-john-roberts.html

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To the Editor:

Re “Roberts Is Pivotal as Court Topples Abortion Barrier” (front page, June 30):

Chief Justice John Roberts is playing the long game by voting, for the third time in two weeks, with the court’s four liberals to assemble a majority in favor of a liberal result.

The first such decision protected gay and transgender workers; the second protected the young immigrants known as Dreamers; this one strikes down an extremely restrictive Louisiana abortion law nearly identical to the Texas law the court disapproved in 2016. All three decisions deal a significant defeat to the Trump administration and to the G.O.P.’s conservative agenda.

The chief justice’s votes in these three cases can be understood as akin to Justice Owen Roberts’s jurisprudential shift in 1937, when he departed ways with the court’s conservative bloc to uphold New Deal legislation. This helped defuse President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s court-packing plan to increase the number of justices to as many as 15. It became known as “the switch in time that saved nine.”

I believe that the long game the chief justice is playing is prompted by a campaign by some progressive Democrats to expand the Supreme Court to at least 11 members should a Democrat be elected president and the Democratic Party assume control of the House and the Senate.

Robert E. LehrerChicagoThe writer is a lawyer.

To the Editor:

The latest Supreme Court decision involving abortion is further proof that Chief Justice John Roberts is anything but a reliable conservative.

Matt C. AbbottLake Geneva, Wis.The writer is a Catholic commentator for RenewAmerica.com.

To the Editor:

Chief Justice John Roberts has voted with the Supreme Court’s four liberal justices three times recently. Conservatives are calling him a traitor to his Republican roots.

Yet since the mid-20th century, several justices named to the court by Republican presidents have migrated to the left. Earl Warren and William Brennan, both nominated by President Eisenhower, later became liberal icons on the court. President George H.W. Bush put the strict constructionist David Souter on the court and lamented when he later leaned leftward.

American public opinion on civil rights for African-Americans, gays and women has moved decidedly leftward. Perhaps these Republican-sponsored Supreme Court justices were just bending with the liberal leanings of their fellow Americans.

Frank RichterClawson, Mich.The writer was a political writer for Ross Perot in the early 1990s.

To the Editor:

Re “John Roberts Is No Pro-Choice Hero” (editorial, June 30):

While Chief Justice John Roberts, as you state in your editorial, is no pro-choice hero, his decisive vote in Monday’s Supreme Court ruling represents a profound demonstration of his deep respect for precedent-setting landmark decisions.

It would have been just as easy for Chief Justice Roberts to vote exactly as he did in 2016 in the Texas case and likely usher in the beginning of the end for Roe v. Wade. In an era when true American heroes in our system of government seem so few and far between, Chief Justice Roberts has acted in a manner that represents the utmost respect for the rule of law.

While his career legacy is yet to be written, a chapter was drafted this week that warrants him honor and thanks. Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice.

Mark S. FreedmanParkland, Fla.