If there’s one case US Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts doesn’t want to preside over, it’s the impeachment trial of president Donald Trump in the Senate.
But if the inquiry into Trump’s Ukraine dealings leads Congress to impeach, the constitution will require the chief justice to preside over the proceedings, however distasteful it may be to him. There’s reason to believe it would be very unpalatable to Roberts.
A panel of legal writers, law professors and practitioners at a Federalist Society event in Washington, DC on Oct. 2 agreed that the chief justice will not relish the prospect of presiding over something that would, by its very nature, be a political trial. The nine-member court, which begins its next term on Oct. 7, has a 5-4 conservative majority.
