We’re living in a pretty topsy-turvy world when Chief Justice John Roberts is supposed to get praise for judicial restraint rather than getting pummeled by both sides of the political aisle for failing to give either of them what they want. I can understand what Noah Feldman is saying, particularly in the context of our times, but I think his argument is frankly nuts.
You don’t deserve praise for being half as radical as Antonin Scalia.
Roberts hasn’t fooled me for a minute. He’s a corporatist, a shill for those with the deepest pockets. Before the first Obamacare case, I predicted to my daughter, who was then in law school, that he wouldn’t squander the Court’s credibility to satisfy the radical base. He will, however, do whatever he can to make corporations immune to law suits and regulation. He’s marched lock step with my predictions, which is unusual in that I’m not super insightful most of the time. But I’ve always felt like I could see right through Roberts, right from the moment of his B.S. promise to call balls and strikes.