We've now been told that the widely circulated rumor from Georgetown Law School, that Chief Justice John Roberts is resigning from the Court for personal reasons, is absolutely not true.
But as for the other rumor, the virtually unheard of one about what really gets Roberts's goat, that one may in fact be very true.
And I'm not referring to the fact that the Chief Justice, apparently no less than Justice Alito, was perturbed by the President's State of the Union criticism of the Court's campaign finance decision. Roberts is even wondering whether the Justices should henceforth attend that annual address. Well, yeah, I wonder too.
I'm referring to something else. (No surprise to readers of this blog.) In forthcoming posts on New York Court watcher, we'll be taking a look at that something else--i.e., what decisions of the Court really get Roberts's goat (shorthand: his goats) and drive him to author a dissenting opinion?
(Meantime, for an examination of his fellow Bush-appointed Justice Alito's goats, see Justice Alito's Goat--What Gets It? (Part 4: One Last Thing) Mar. 7, 2010; (Part 3: Connecting the Dots), Feb. 28, 2010; (Part 2: His Dissents), Feb. 22, 2010; (Part 1), Feb. 16, 2010.)
