Chief Justice Roberts said his neutral approach to abortion decisions attracted none of his peers’ votes, and said the court’s role in the constitutional structure must be respected.
“If the courts do not maintain their rightful function of interpreting the Constitution, I don’t know who will take over that mantle,” he said. “I don’t want the political world to tell me what the law is, and I don’t want public opinion to guide the right decisions.”
David A. Strauss, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said the chief justice’s failed efforts to broker a settlement in an abortion case presented him with an opportunity.
“The reaction to Mr. Dobbs will give the Chief Justice a chance to say to his conservative colleagues, ‘I said so.’ They would see it as just a judicial branch of the movement,” said Professor Strauss. “But I doubt his colleagues would listen.”
Justice Elena Kagan, a member of the Supreme Court’s trio of liberals, spoke frequently over the summer about, in layman’s terms, how courts undermine their own authority.
She said in New York in September that it could happen when judges appear to be “an extension of the political process or they’re imposing their own personal preferences.” The public “has a right to expect that change,” he added. โ
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, another liberal, echoed this point.
Courts have almost complete power to decide which cases to hear and often use their discretion to settle disputes between lower courts. The court has agreed to hear many of the major cases next term, despite the lack of such conflicts. This shows that a new majority is pursuing the agenda and setting the pace for change.