20 Years of the Chief Justice John Roberts Court

Adam Liptak, the distinguished New

York Times Supreme Court reporter, will discuss “20 Years of the Chief Justice

John Roberts Court” at The David M. Hunt Library on Thursday, September 25th at

7 pm. Mr. Liptak will be interviewed by constitutional scholar David

Rudenstine of the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School, a Falls Village resident

and the author of books and articles on the constitution. The interview

will be conducted on Zoom.

The Roberts Court is one of the most consequential and controversial courts of the last century having ruled that the constitution does not protect a women's right to an abortion, that a president's official acts are presumptively immune from criminal prosecution, that higher education affirmative action programs are unconstitutional, that gun owners have new constitutional rights, and that the heart of the 1965 voting rights act was unconstitutional. The term ahead proves to be equally consequential. 

Only three Chief Justices have served longer than John Roberts, and the last Chief Justice to do that died in office over a century ago. Since John Roberts is now only 70 years of age, the expectation is that he will continue to serve as the Chief Justice for many more years. Liptak and Rudenstine will analyze the Court and its members and compare its actions to the words of John Roberts at his congressional hearing when he famously said he would “call balls and strikes”.