I have often compared John Roberts to Mitch McConnell, and with good reason; the two are the twin architects of the McConnell Project, which prohibits the left from exercising real power even when in office. With the death of Chevron, their work is essentially done. The federal bureaucracy, workers, and consumers will see their rights eroded over the coming years, with the approval of the judiciary; the big winners will be wealthy businessmen.
But the Trump immunity case suggests that Roberts has moved on. He wasn’t in the tank for Trump before; now he is. My guess is that his plan is to play the insider game with Trump; he believes he can keep the man on golf cart within the guardrails of liberal democracy by building credibility with him on other issues. Under this theory, Trump won’t openly defy the rule of law if he has reason to believe he will get most of what he wants by complying with it.
In other words, Roberts wants to be Lindsey Graham. How well has that worked in the past?