The Chief

February 11, 2019
Biskupic (Breaking In: The Rise of Sonia Sotomayor and the Politics of Justice), a legal analyst for CNN who has covered the Supreme Court since 1989, offers an in-depth analysis of the career and judicial philosophy of the current chief justice, John Roberts. Biskupic goes light on Roberts’s personal life and mundane day-to-day details, focusing instead on his work in the George H.W. Bush Justice Department, his time on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, his 2005 appointment and confirmation to the Supreme Court, and his role in the back-and-forth of the justices’ decision making. Biskupic is clear that Roberts’s views are deeply conservative and, in the areas of race and religion, unlikely to change, but she also discusses at length his surprising vote to uphold the Affordable Care Act, which infuriated conservatives and prompted liberals to hope he may compromise on culturally divisive issues. At times Biskupic is openly critical of Roberts; she raises doubts about his claim that the Court’s recent decisions on voting rights, religion, and campaign finance were neutral decision making rather than the work of a political institution. In these pages, Roberts comes across as a dyed-in-the-wool conservative whose views have remained remarkably unchanging over time. Biskupic’s analysis will be closely read by Court watchers on both the Right and Left.

Narrator Jennywren Walker's narration lacks authority and engagement with this audiobook. CNN legal analyst Joan Biskupic has written a liberal's well-researched examination and critique of the life and rulings of United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed by President George W. Bush. Biskupic is critical of Roberts's consistently conservative values, thought process, and way of life. Listeners should be aware that there is politicizing in the jurisprudence analysis. Roberts's early life is presented in a chronological approach, and then the discussion moves to his court activities and rulings. Should the listener get past Walker's staid approach, there is much to learn from an insider's view of the American legal system. This is a fascinating life reasonably well described in the writing, but dimmed and muddied in the narration. W.A.G. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine