I think SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts is getting the message.

[RandySF]

He realizes he has to pull it from the cliff before the public come with pitchforks.

[orthoclad]

1. They'll wait for the attention span to decay.

[Aristus]

4. That's just for the below-averages.

Those of us with functioning brains usually have the attention span to go with it.

[orthoclad]

17. Yes, but tv guarantees a short cycle

[bucolic_frolic]

2. It helps to have a whole lot of in-house corruption going on

Eventually some laws will have been broken. Then what?

Roberts has run a rather patrician, clubby Court. Former GOP election lawyer, 2000, you know?

[Chakaconcarne]

3. and/or we're about to get screwed by the next set of decisions...

[rubbersole]

13. These fair decisions are a smokescreen for what Leonard Leo really paid for.

I think the cat is out of the bag. Right-wing corruption/oligarch money influence has been exposed. More shit is going to hit the fan. Can't come soon enough.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes

The justices are constantly talking to one another and there's a good deal of pursuasion that can happen. Kavanaugh and Coney could end up being Kennedy like moderates on all but a few issues. Certainly looking like this court is making an effort to be fair, that's a good thing.

[obamanut2012]

9. Who is Cohen?

[wryter2000]

10. Do you mean Coney-Barret?

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. He needs to push some real ethics rules to be credible

So far, the Court is just giving the public a raised middle finger.

[wryter2000]

7. He can't do it alone

He needs one more Republican to vote with him to prevail.

[stopdiggin]

8. it's called the Roberts court

but the degree of actual control Roberts has - has been pretty self evident for some time - and declined further with the appointment of Coney Barrett. In agreement that the court (the full nine) is 'getting the message.' Whether anybody is going to be 'reined in' by sober reflection (as opposed to Roberts) - remains to be seen. (and we might not have the answer to that for years)

[unblock]

11. There's no climbing back up that cliff after leaping off it by enslaving women

[brush]

14. This exactly. Roberts' tenure has been quite distinguished in it's undistinquished mediocrity.

Check that...undistinquished, yes, but cuts below ordinary mediocrity I must say...what with the Citizens United decision, the disastrous Heller/Scalia gun unleashing, the disgraceful Kennedy/Kavanaugh buy out, and of course the worst of all, the right-before-out-eyes Dobbs betrayal of million of American women and their supporters.

It's too late for Roberts to redeem himself, but maybe he's trying. Him, Comey and Barr must all be from the same batch number.

[unblock]

15. He has no interest in redemption. He's just trying to keep the pitchforks at bay

The only reason he's moderating at all is to try to stave off something like congress adding 4 seats to restore sone balance to the court.

[brush]

16. You're of course right, but expanding SCOTUS is just about unattainable.

We can't even get an ethics code for SCOTUS.

[ITAL]

12. I think it's apparent

That he's tried to rein in the hard right wing for several years. He's definitely super conservative himself, but he's also an institutionalist. The most important number to him is nine, and the crazier the court rules, the less likely that number stays as is.

[former9thward]

18. The public is not coming with pitchforks.

The internet is not the public.