John Roberts’s About-Face on Supreme Court Activism
During the Reagan administration, John Roberts was known for denouncing judicial overreach. Today he has adopted an assertive use of judicial power, using the Supreme Court’s shadow docket to fast-track corporate wins on climate and federal policy.
Chief Justice John Roberts has become the kind of tyrannical, politically unaccountable “activist” judge that he himself once warned about. (Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)
Though America has become a goldfish-brain society that forgets its entire world every fifteen minutes, it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate the cautionary tale implicit in the New York Times’ new blockbuster story about the Supreme Court’s shadow docket. The secret memos that the Times unearthed show Chief Justice John Roberts has become the kind of tyrannical, politically unaccountable “activist” judge that Roberts once warned about.
As a young lawyer, Roberts made a name for himself within the Reagan administration, casting himself as a leader of a movement to curtail judges' power. Indeed, in one memo, Roberts provided talking points about judicial selection, urging Reagan officials to declare that “this Administration is attempting to restore a balance on the Federal judiciary that does not exist now with the judicial activism we see. Judges should interpret the law, not make it or execute it.”
In another memo, Roberts gave Ronald Reagan’s attorney general a crafted “Judicial Activism Q&As: Specific Examples.”
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