We've been told that Chief Justice Roberts is playing the long game. For the past two decades, he has been carefully moving pieces on a three-dimensional chess board. Indeed, Roberts has been setting the stage for this long-game since the Reagan administration. And, the crowning achievement of this plan--the White Whale!--would be overruling Roe v. Wade. Or so the story goes.
But in the interim, things did not go to plan. Justice Scalia suddenly died, and we almost had Justice Garland. But Senate Republicans refused to give him a hearing, Trump won, and we got Justice Gorsuch. Justice Kennedy retired, and we got Justice Kavanaugh. Then, Justice Ginsburg suddenly died, and we got Justice Barrett.
Tell me, can any "long game" possibly plan for all these eventualities? In 2017, I wrote that Roberts's "long game" suffers from what Hayek described as the "fatal conceit."
