Topic: Chief Justice's Influence on Overall Philosophical Direction
Senator: Feingold
Date: SEPTEMBER 15, 2005
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FEINGOLD: On a different subject, after the passing of Chief Justice Rehnquist, a number of news articles discussed his legacy and noted that early in his tenure as justice, he had been a dissenting voice, but the court seemed to shift in his direction over time.
And recently, Professor Cass Sunstein recalled that over lunch with a group of Supreme Court clerks, when he was an associate justice, Chief Justice Rehnquist described his own role on the court. He said the court was like a boat, that it tilted way over to one side and his task was to put it upright again.
Do you believe that the chief justice has the duty to influence the overall philosophical direction of the court through his personal leadership or through opinion-writing assignments or any other means? And do you think it is appropriate for the chief to do that?
ROBERTS: I don't think using opinion-writing assignments as a way to try to promote a particular view or agenda is a good idea. And I don't think Chief Justice Rehnquist did that.
I do think, if you go back and look at every year that he was the chief justice and just pick out what you think are the 10 or 12 biggest cases of that year, I think you will find that those cases are distributed very evenly among the nine justices.
And one reason I think relations among the justices were so collegial under Chief Justice Rehnquist's leadership, at a time when, of course, the court had very marked philosophical differences and sharp dissents in some areas, but everybody got along well, is was because the chief made a priority of being fair in his opinion assignments. I think that's the more important priority.
FEINGOLD: Can you imagine ever changing you vote in order to be able to assign the majority opinion to yourself or to another justice. And do you think such practice is appropriate?
ROBERTS: No, I don't, in answer to both questions.
FEINGOLD: So you would not do that.
ROBERTS: I wouldn't do that.
I think that does -- again, sort of, trying to use that assignment power in a tactical way -- it causes tension on the court and I think undermines the ability of the chief justice to the extent he has the ability, and it's obviously limited, to act as a force to help bring about some cohesiveness and collegiality.
FEINGOLD: Thank you for that answer.
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