{"id":5554,"date":"2021-12-28T14:36:22","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T22:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=5554"},"modified":"2021-12-28T14:36:22","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T22:36:22","slug":"john-roberts-a-popular-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=5554","title":{"rendered":"John Roberts, a Popular Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chief Justice John Roberts is the most popular of 11 national leaders the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/358373\/justice-roberts-tops-federal-leaders-americans-approval.aspx\">Gallup poll asked about<\/a>, with a 60% approval rating.\u00a0 (By contrast, at the bottom of the heap were five politicians, each with a rating below 45%.\u00a0 In order:\u00a0 VP Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell).<\/p>\n<p>Why is that germane to a criminal law blog?\u00a0 Because Roberts, despite occasional loud complaints by conservatives and praise by liberals, has been a pretty reliable vote in favor of law enforcement and the death penalty in particular.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Roberts was the author of the plurality opinion in Baze v. Rees, the 2008 case that rejected a challenge to lethal injection, by far the most frequently used method of execution.\u00a0 He was the deciding vote in favor of capital punishment in the follow-up method of execution case, Glossip v. Gross (decided 5-4 in 2015).\u00a0 In February 2019, Roberts was part of the majority in a 5\u20134 decision rejecting a Muslim inmate&#8217;s request to delay execution in order to have an imam present with him (an issue still percolating at the Court).<\/p>\n<p>Roberts has not been uniform in his voting pattern, and would not be mistaken for, e.g., Justice Thomas or Justice Alito.\u00a0 But by-and-large, he has been good news for law and order, and for conservatives more generally.\u00a0 The Left occasionally likes to adopt him for his decisive vote upholding Obamacare in the Sebelius case, and was happy to hail him as the &#8220;swing&#8221; vote, at least before Justice Kavanaugh replaced Justice Kennedy and Justice Barrett replaced Justice Ginsburg.<\/p>\n<p>But his actual record is not one liberals enjoy, as they are happy to remember when engaged in their current grousing about the Court, and in particular the move, gaining subscription in some quarters, to pack it.\u00a0 In particular, Roberts was the decisive vote in the most important Second Amendment case (Heller), and the main campaign finance case (Citizens United), both of which have provided limitless heartburn to the Left.\u00a0 He also dissented in Obergefell, disagreeing with the Court&#8217;s narrow majority that same-sex couple have a constitutional right to marry\u00a0 &#8212;\u00a0 a dissent that took considerable intestinal fortitude inside the Beltway.\u00a0 Although little remembered now, he declined to preside over the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, who was impeached while still President, but whose term had expired by the time of the Senate proceeding.<\/p>\n<p>When a conservative, mostly law-and-order Justice ranks as the most popular national leader, swamping a (now) anti-death penalty President, celebrations by the Left that they have taken over the country&#8217;s direction may be a mite premature.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chief Justice John Roberts is the most popular of 11 national leaders the Gallup poll asked about, with a 60% approval rating.\u00a0 (By contrast, at the bottom of the heap were five politicians, each with a rating below 45%.\u00a0 In order:\u00a0 VP Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell). Why is that germane to a criminal law blog?\u00a0 Because Roberts, despite occasional loud complaints by conservatives and praise by liberals, has been a pretty reliable vote in favor of law enforcement and the death penalty in particular.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-polls"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>John Roberts, a Popular Leader - Crime &amp; Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=5554\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Roberts, a Popular Leader - Crime &amp; Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chief Justice John Roberts is the most popular of 11 national leaders the Gallup poll asked about, with a 60% approval rating.\u00a0 (By contrast, at the bottom of the heap were five politicians, each with a rating below 45%.\u00a0 In order:\u00a0 VP Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell). Why is that germane to a criminal law blog?\u00a0 Because Roberts, despite occasional loud complaints by conservatives and praise by liberals, has been a pretty reliable vote in favor of law enforcement and the death penalty in particular.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=5554\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crime &amp; Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-28T22:36:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill Otis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bill Otis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=5554\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=5554\",\"name\":\"John Roberts, a Popular Leader - Crime &amp; Consequences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-28T22:36:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=5554#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=5554\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=5554#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"John Roberts, a Popular Leader\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\",\"name\":\"Crime &amp; Consequences\",\"description\":\"Crime and criminal law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e\",\"name\":\"Bill Otis\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"John Roberts, a Popular Leader - Crime &amp; Consequences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=5554","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"John Roberts, a Popular Leader - Crime &amp; Consequences","og_description":"Chief Justice John Roberts is the most popular of 11 national leaders the Gallup poll asked about, with a 60% approval rating.\u00a0 (By contrast, at the bottom of the heap were five politicians, each with a rating below 45%.\u00a0 In order:\u00a0 VP Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell). 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