U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts made a swing through Lexington Wednesday, speaking at the University of Kentucky just one day after President Donald Trump announced his choice to fill the ninth seat on the high court. But observers hoping for insight into Roberts' take on Trump or the looming battle over his nominee went home empty-handed.
It’s hard to imagine a bigger “get” for the UK College of Law – with Roberts recently swearing in a new president and learning, only hours before, the name of the next nominee to the bench. But the chief justice wasn’t asked to weigh in on Gorsuch, or President Trump’s controversial executive order on immigration, which seems destined to eventually land on Roberts’ docket.
Instead, the George W. Bush appointee presented a short history of Kentucky’s deep roots on connections on the high court and discussed his varied responsibilities as chief justice. Speaking with James Duff, director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Roberts reflected on the power dynamic on the court since Justice Antonin Scalia passed away last February.
"We obviously, I think, tried to talk about cases a little more in conference if it looked like we were going to be evenly divided – tried maybe a little harder to find some common ground that could allow us to reach a particular decision," he said.
Roberts noted that the Supreme Court generally takes up about half the number of cases per year it used to during his law clerking days, but he senses a shift in that trend.
"Some people say it's been awhile since Congress passed the big pieces of legislation that generate a lot of litigation. I think that's changing now with Dodd-Frank, Obamacare, all these others. They'll be a lot of cases coming out of those," he predicted.
Roberts’ visit wasn’t all business. The chief justice also got a taste of UK basketball Tuesday night, taking in the Wildcats’ come-from-behind victory over Georgia at Rupp Arena.
The chief justice was invited to speak as part of the inaugural event of the University of Kentucky’s Heyburn Initiative, honoring late District Judge John Heyburn. He did not take questions from reporters.
