Rulings Return Supreme Court Control to Roberts

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts this session showed himself as being decisively in charge through a series of wins for conservatives, including former President Donald Trump.

Roberts, now in his 19th year as chief justice, on Monday topped off the list of watershed opinions reached this session through the 6-3 ruling finding allowing presidential immunity in Trump's case, but there were far more rulings that matched his priorities to curb federal power, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The court heard two abortion cases, established barriers on federal regulations, and reached decisions that not only benefited Trump but limited the ability of prosecutors to bring obstruction charges against Jan. 6 defendants, in many cases providing a get-out-of-jail free card for those who have already been convicted.

The abortion cases remained in a holding pattern, with the abortion drug Mifepristone remaining available, and Idaho's abortion ban staying preempted by federal law in emergency cases, but those were not seen as priorities for Roberts, David Strauss, faculty director of the Supreme Court Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, commented.

Instead, regulatory rollbacks and presidential power "are the areas he cares about," while "gun rights, abortion — those aren't as high on his list," Strauss told The Wall Street Journal.

Given the conservative majority on the court, Roberts' majority rulings are now higher than those of any other justice. In the 2023-24 term, Roberts joined the majority in 96% of the argued cases, the Empirical Scotus blog shows.

Roberts, as chief, can assign the opinion to any of the other justices, but in the biggest cases, he delivered the opinion himself, including in Trump's immunity case and in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned a 40-year precedent and increased the authority of federal judges to overturn regulations on federal agencies.

Deborah Pearlstein, the director of law and public policy, commented that increasing judicial power is at the top of Roberts' list of goals.

"The number of his decisions that cite Marbury v. Madison to say what the court's power is, is remarkable," said Pearlstein, noting that Roberts used the 1803 opinion by Chief Justice John Marshall in both the Trump immunity and Loper Bright opinions.

Roberts did not hold as much control on the court two years ago when he was trying to find a middle ground on abortion rights before the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

He proposed rolling back the landmark decision without fully eliminating the right to abortion, but the five other conservatives on the court pushed to overrule the 1973 precedent, while the three liberals would give no ground on it.

But while rulings on abortion cases this term did not approve further regulations, in other issues, including the immunity case for Trump, Roberts firmly outlined protections for him and future presidents.

This brought dissents from the liberal side of the court, but criticism from conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who disagreed with several parts of the ruling but voted along with the majority.