Let this sink in: Had William Rehnquist lived another month or two, Alito might be the Chief Justice [View all]

[Polybius]

As most of you know, when Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement in 2005, George W. Bush announced John Roberts as her replacement. Things were going smooth and then Rehnquist suddenly died. Then Bush pulled Roberts as O'Conner's replacement, and decided to have him replace Rehnquist instead. Then Bush nominated Alito to replace O'Conner.

What if Rehnquist had lived just another month or so, after Roberts was sworn in an an Associate Justice? Now, there's no guarantee that Bush would have replaced him with Alito, but this much is certain: Roberts would not be CJ. Perhaps it would have been Michael Luttig. Or maybe even Antonin Scalia. But it would have been someone certainly to the right of Roberts.