Chief Justice Will ’Referee’ Impeachment Trial

the rules, they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules, but it is a limited role. Now Roberts finds himself in the position of making sure that everyone plays by the rules at the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, which he'll preside over, pulling the Chief into the same role that the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist played at the ile of President Bill Clinton, but at a far more partisan time in our history. Joining

me is Bloomberg New Supreme Court reporter Greg Store. You spoke to Chief Justice Roberts when he was a mere lawyer before ran Quist oversaw the impeachment of President Clinton. Yeah, that was back when I got to call him John. He was a very successful private lawyer, and I just asked him because he's a former law clerk to William Rehnquist, and we hadn't had an impeachment so long, so I asked him, how do you think that Chief Justice Renklist

is going to be able to handle things? And he basically said, if anybody can do what, he can do it. Chief Justice Rehnquist had written a book on impeachment, so he knew as much about the process as anybody else, and he managed to juggle his dual duties. He was at the Supreme Court in the morning handling arguments and in the Senate in the afternoon dealing with the impeachment trout. And that's probably what John Roberts will have to do

as well. As we've discussed many times, John Roberts repeatedly when he's at lecture or Q and as talks about how the judiciary is above partisan politics, and now he's going to be thrust in the center of the most partisan trial of our time. Perhaps how will he manage that? It's certainly something he has prided himself on, both himself and the Supreme Court not being, as he said, part of politics. It could be a challenge for him. It really depends a lot on how much he's asked to do.

Back in the Clinton impeachment trial, the two sides agreed on the basic ground rules, and what they didn't agree on going in, they agreed to as they went along, and that meant that William Rinqust really didn't have to decide all that much. That could end up being the same thing with John Roberts. But it could also be the case that he's being asked to deal with a lot of questions. And while it's always the case that the Senate can override anything he decides, he's not the

final word. Um, it may be that he feels a need to make a show of being even handed and making sure there's a certain amount of fairness to the proceeding. I just wonder about his image. As you mentioned in your story, this is the first time that most people will have heard the Chief Justice since his confirmation hearings, and they're going to see him in this very political environment, and I just wonder what that does to his image. Well,

it could go either way. It could drag him down into it or it could be in the moment where he rises above it. You know, undoubtedly all the members of Congress who are going to be before him are going to be acting in a very political manner. He may appear to be the one person in the room who's not thinking about politics. In that sense, one could

imagine it could enhance his image. On the other hand, if he gets forced into making decisions, if he makes controversial decisions, there is some danger that he will be seen as taking sides. Chief Justice Rehnquist had a relatively light docket when he presided over the Clinton impeachment trial. What kind of docket is if Justice Robert's facing, It's relatively light in January when the trial is probably going

to take place. So, for example, on the on the Wednesdays when the Court is hearing argument that week, it's only hearing one each day, So it would be easy enough for him to hear arguments in that case in the morning and go over to the Senate in the afternoon. The term as a whole, of course, is a lot bigger than that, and we've discussed some of those big cases. A gun case, they've got an abortion case, they've got

sectional orientation, and transgender job discrimination. And now they have the Trump subpoena cases where members of Congress and the New York Grand Jury are trying to get Donald Trump's financial documents. So the big picture is that John Roberts has an awful lot of big stuff to deal with, But it may not be the case in January that

he's got that much on his plate. So we know one thing for sure, and that is that he will not be wearing the robes that Chief Justice Rehnquist war, which had gold braiding on them like Gilbert and Sullivan, but Chief Justice in quists other than that took sort of a backseat role as a presiding judge is chief just as Roberts likely do the same. Well. Yeah, so the one thing everybody remembers from the Clinton and Peachman trial about William Renklist is that he had the four

gold stripes on his sleeves. Those were inspired by the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Iolanthey. After that trial, Renclist used a quote from that operetta to describe what he did. He said, I did nothing in particular, and I did it very well. I'm sure John Roberts would love for that to be the case for him now, he is probably not looking forward to this. It puts him out of his element. He's going to have to be dealing with stuff that he's not at all accustomed dealing with

Senate rules, having to make decisions on the spot. It may be that, especially if the Senators end up with a bare bones kind of trial, or he doesn't have to do a whole lot, he can come out much like William Renklist didn't say he didn't have to do a whole lot, but we'll just have to see. And he has presided over a so called hot bench at the Supreme Court, but he's never presided over a trial. He has not. You're right on you, so to my yours is the only one of the nine Supreme Court

justices who's been a trial judge. So yeah, you know, trial judges, unlike Capella judges, do make decisions on the spot. They don't get to go back and sit in their conference room and discuss with their colleagues how they're going to come out and then rule several months later. It'll be a new experience for John Roberts. Absolutely, he will have the ability to consult with the Senate Parliamentarian that and doubtedly will be an important source of support for him.

He'll have at least one aid from the Supreme Court, the man named Jeff mcneir, who will be coming over there with him. He can us his law clarks if he wants to, so he will have some assistance, but it will be a very new experience for him. Thanks Greg. That's Greg Store, Bloomberg new Supreme Court reporter. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can subscribe and listen to the show on Apple podcast, SoundCloud and on

Bloomberg dot com slash podcast. I'm June Brasso. This is Bloomberg contained bed the dependent du contation