What gives, Justice Roberts?

Behind closed doors, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice privately lobbied his other conservative judges to not overturn Roe v. Wade, which had previously found that the right to abortion is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

When the justices were in the midst of deciding Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the decision that ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade, Roberts was hard at work trying to get Justice Brett Kavanaugh, another conservative justice, to not vote to overturn Roe. He ultimately failed in his efforts, which were not the first, nor likely the last, the Chief Justice had made towards attempting to nudge the conservative majority of the Court to the middle.

See, Justice Roberts' efforts were thwarted by the leak of the decision, which was, just like the decisions below, unprecedented. Roberts was incredibly offended by this breaking with precedent, and called it "absolutely appalling", and a "singular betrayal of trust." BUT, let us not forget that this is the same man that ushered in the era of the ultimate breaker of precedent and one who betrays the trust of the American people every day, by doing whatever he pleases, whether or not the Constitution or any other law or regulation allows him to.

Roberts was, "on information and belief", instrumental in the Citizens United decision, which very deliberately found that limiting corporate and individual spending in political campaigns was a violation of the First Amendment (even though that's not the question that was asked of the Court). This ushered in the Trump era, marked by chaos and the stomping of the Constitution and American institutions.

We've luckily passed the Musk part of that era, but allowing the most wealthy among us to influence politics surely ushered in abuses of power and of precedent that make the early leak of the Roe decision look like child's play. The most recent is that ICE is offering 18-year-olds $50,000, weapons, and loan forgiveness to round up immigrants as fast as possible and ship them out to whence they came.

International law and human rights be damned.