美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'The Chief,' An Enigmatic, Conservative John Roberts Walks A Political Tightrope

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

There have been 45 presidents in the history of our country but just 17 Supreme¹ Court chief justices. The current chief justice, John Roberts Jr., is often viewed as the center point of a new hard-line conservative majority, but he makes a practice of not revealing his views. Well, now we're able to learn more about him from a new biography that is out today. And we have more from NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.

NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE²: After 14 years as chief justice, John Roberts remains³ an enigmatic figure. He's a committed conservative who's been publicly reviled⁴ by conservative politicians. He's a conservative who's the last best hope of liberals and moderates who dream, probably in vain, that he will significantly temper the court's turn to the right.

(SOUNDBITE OF MEDIA MONTAGE)

JOHN ROBERTS: We do not serve one party or one interest.

Judging is different from politics.

TOTENBERG: His public persona is charming.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROBERTS: Can't talk about anything current, future or past, so my remarks will be brief.

(LAUGHTER)

TOTENBERG: And studied.

JOAN BISKUPIC: He watches what he says very carefully.

TOTENBERG: Supreme Court reporter Joan Biskupic has written a biography of Roberts trying to pierce that practiced facade⁵. It's the fourth biography she's written about a sitting justice.

BISKUPIC: He was my toughest subject, start to finish.

TOTENBERG: Her provocative⁶ volume reveals much about the chief justice - from his guarded, even secretive nature, to the experiences that have changed him and, mainly, those that have only hardened his conservative outlook. Roberts was raised in the upper-middle class, nearly all-white suburbs of predominately black Gary, Ind.

BISKUPIC: Mother was a homemaker, father was a steel company executive. He was one of four children, the only boy.

TOTENBERG: He was a golden boy from the get-go, an outstanding student at an outstanding Catholic prep school who excelled at Harvard and Harvard Law School.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WILLIAM REHNQUIST: Mr. Roberts, we'll hear from you now.

ROBERTS: Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the court.

TOTENBERG: As a lawyer, he argued 39 cases in the Supreme Court.

(SOUNDBITE OF MEDIA MONTAGE)

ROBERTS: The petitioner's position...

Now, respondent's basic submission⁷...

It would not surprise me to find out that 95 percent of the hospital's charging costs...

TOTENBERG: Even his appointment to the Supreme Court...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GEORGE W BUSH: Morning.

TOTENBERG: ...Had a lucky twist.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BUSH: This summer, I announced the nomination⁸ of Judge John Roberts to be...

TOTENBERG: Named to succeed Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, his nomination was quickly upgraded two months later when then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist died.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BUSH: Pleased to announce that I will nominate him to serve as the 17th chief justice of the Supreme Court.

TOTENBERG: In the years since then, his record has been solidly conservative. He's voted consistently to strike down or undermine civil rights laws. He's voted against affirmative action, against laws enacted⁹ to limit the role of big money in campaigns, against abortion¹⁰ rights, against same-sex marriage and for more deference¹¹ to religious rights. And yet, he's been roundly denounced by many conservatives for what they view as his original sin.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP¹²: He really let us down. What he did with Obamacare was disgraceful.

TOTENBERG: Roberts was the fifth and decisive vote to uphold the Affordable¹³ Care Act, and he wrote the opinion.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROBERTS: The statute¹⁴ here may be upheld as a tax increase on those without health insurance, which is within Congress's power to tax.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Today's hero, Chief Justice John Roberts...

TOTENBERG: Liberals cheered.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MATTHEWS: ...Walked to the forefront of history and said yes to progress and no to the role prescribed for him by the right. He would...

TOTENBERG: Author Joan Biskupic tells a complicated tale of how Roberts arrived at the health care decision, how - to the consternation¹⁵ of fellow conservatives on the court - he changed his initial vote, something that's unusual but hardly unheard of.

BISKUPIC: It certainly baffled many of the justices to his left, angered many of the justices to his right and produced a lingering sense of distrust.

TOTENBERG: Certainly, Roberts was concerned about the legitimacy¹⁶ of the court. The appearance of striking down a huge law enacted by Congress and thus putting the court front and center in the election campaign that year. But Biskupic also points to a more practical reason for his decision.

BISKUPIC: In the end, I think his moves were born of a concern for this important law and the business of health care, which he knew well from his days representing the industry.

TOTENBERG: There would not be a similar defection again. Roberts has stayed true to his long-held and very conservative views on issues from race to abortion.

BISKUPIC: There's this straight line from what he wrote as a young lieutenant¹⁷ in the Reagan years to what he writes now from the center chair of the Supreme Court.

TOTENBERG: Indeed, she reports that in the Reagan years Roberts was at the forefront of efforts to get the Supreme Court to overturn Roe¹⁸ v. Wade¹⁹. And on the court, while he has never explicitly²⁰ called for reversing Roe, he's never cast a vote to invalidate an abortion restriction²¹. His Reagan-era memos²² on race questions similarly show a young man infuriated by what he saw then and still sees now as racial preferences in a variety of spheres.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROBERTS: I have the opinion of the court this morning...

TOTENBERG: As chief justice, Roberts has reiterated²³ those views.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROBERTS: ...Case 12-96, Shelby County v. Holder²⁴.

TOTENBERG: In 2013, in a case from Alabama, Roberts wrote the 5-to-4 decision striking down the centerpiece of the landmark²⁵ 1965 Voting Rights Act which mandated²⁶ federal oversight²⁷ of any voting rule changes in places that had a long history of discriminating²⁸ against minority voters.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROBERTS: But our country has changed in the past 50 years.

BISKUPIC: I think that the consequences of Shelby County have been rather stark²⁹.

TOTENBERG: As Biskupic observes, immediately after the court's decision, state and local jurisdictions³⁰ across the south, now freed from federal oversight, began enacting³¹ new rules making it more difficult for African-Americans and other minorities to vote. The voting rights decision may be a harbinger of things to come. Roberts, for example, did not prevail in the same-sex marriage case.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROBERTS: I have no choice but to dissent³².

TOTENBERG: It was the only time in 14 years that the chief justice has read a dissent from the bench.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROBERTS: From the dawn of human history until a few years ago, marriage was defined as the union of a man and a woman.

BISKUPIC: At a time when American social attitudes were changing rapidly, John Roberts was not changing.

TOTENBERG: The retirement³³ of Justice Anthony Kennedy last summer and the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to replace him means that, as Biskupic puts it, Roberts has the court he's always wanted.

BISKUPIC: He was no longer yoked³⁴ to a centrist conservative pulling him to the left. He no longer had to woo Kennedy, appease³⁵ Kennedy, deal with Kennedy. He's leading the court much more in his own image, and the law will likely be what he says it is.

TOTENBERG: Probably for a long time. At 64, he could serve another 20 years. Joan Biskupic's book is "The Chief: The Life And Turbulent Times Of Chief Justice John Roberts."

Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF PARA ONE'S "NEON (REPRISE)")

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 reviled   

v.辱骂，痛斥( revile的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The tramp reviled the man who drove him off. 流浪汉辱骂那位赶他走开的人。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The old man reviled against corruption. 那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 facade   

n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表

参考例句：

• The entrance facade consists of a large full height glass door.入口正面有一大型全高度玻璃门。
• If you look carefully,you can see through Bob's facade.如果你仔细观察，你就能看穿鲍勃的外表。

6 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

7 submission   

n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出

参考例句：

• The defeated general showed his submission by giving up his sword.战败将军缴剑表示投降。
• No enemy can frighten us into submission.任何敌人的恐吓都不能使我们屈服。

8 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

9 enacted   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• legislation enacted by parliament 由议会通过的法律
• Outside in the little lobby another scene was begin enacted. 外面的小休息室里又是另一番景象。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

10 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

11 deference   

n.尊重，顺从；敬意

参考例句：

• Do you treat your parents and teachers with deference?你对父母师长尊敬吗？
• The major defect of their work was deference to authority.他们的主要缺陷是趋从权威。

12 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

13 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

14 statute   

n.成文法，法令，法规；章程，规则，条例

参考例句：

• Protection for the consumer is laid down by statute.保障消费者利益已在法令里作了规定。
• The next section will consider this environmental statute in detail.下一部分将详细论述环境法令的问题。

15 consternation   

n.大为吃惊，惊骇

参考例句：

• He was filled with consternation to hear that his friend was so ill.他听说朋友病得那么厉害，感到非常震惊。
• Sam stared at him in consternation.萨姆惊恐不安地注视着他。

16 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

17 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

18 roe   

n.鱼卵；獐鹿

参考例句：

• We will serve smoked cod's roe at the dinner.宴会上我们将上一道熏鳕鱼子。
• I'll scramble some eggs with roe?我用鱼籽炒几个鸡蛋好吗？

19 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

20 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

21 restriction   

n.限制，约束

参考例句：

• The park is open to the public without restriction.这个公园对公众开放，没有任何限制。
• The 30 mph speed restriction applies in all built-up areas.每小时限速30英里适用于所有建筑物聚集区。

22 memos   

n.备忘录( memo的名词复数 )；（美）内部通知

参考例句：

• Big shots get their dander up and memos start flying. 大人物们怒火中烧，备忘录四下乱飞。 来自辞典例句
• There was a pile of mail, memos and telephone messages on his desk. 他的办公桌上堆满着信件、备忘录和电话通知。 来自辞典例句

23 reiterated   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• "Well, I want to know about it,'she reiterated. “嗯，我一定要知道你的休假日期，"她重复说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some twenty-two years later President Polk reiterated and elaborated upon these principles. 大约二十二年之后，波尔克总统重申这些原则并且刻意阐释一番。

24 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

25 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

26 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

27 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

28 discriminating   

a.有辨别能力的

参考例句：

• Due caution should be exercised in discriminating between the two. 在区别这两者时应该相当谨慎。
• Many businesses are accused of discriminating against women. 许多企业被控有歧视妇女的做法。

29 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

30 jurisdictions   

司法权( jurisdiction的名词复数 )； 裁判权； 管辖区域； 管辖范围

参考例句：

• Butler entreated him to remember the act abolishing the heritable jurisdictions. 巴特勒提醒他注意废除世袭审判权的国会法令。
• James I personally adjudicated between the two jurisdictions. 詹姆士一世亲自裁定双方纠纷。

31 enacting   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Generally these statutes apply only to wastes from reactors outside the enacting state. 总之，这些法令只适宜用在对付那些来自外州的核废料。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• In addition, the complexion of enacting standards for live working is described. 另外，介绍了带电作业标准的制订情况。

32 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

33 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

34 yoked   

结合（yoke的过去式形式）

参考例句：

• The farmer yoked the oxen. 那个农夫给牛加上轭。
• He was yoked to an disinclined partner. 他不得不与一位不情愿的伙伴合作。

35 appease   

v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足

参考例句：

• He tried to appease the crying child by giving him candy.他试图给那个啼哭的孩子糖果使他不哭。
• The government tried to appease discontented workers.政府试图安抚不满的工人们。