I heard the guy speak and take questions in the years before Obamacare.
He was learned, precise, confident, witty as hell, and as deeply conservative as anyone I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.
He's not a bonehead. Maybe he's just gutless. But something got to him on Obamacare.
Roberts was blackmailed.
THROW HIM OUT!!!!!!!!!!!
Something got to him on Obamacare, but he didn't make a bad ruling - only a ruling so razor sharp, everyone missed it. But technically, he supported the Constitution. The other Justices knew it, and Scalia chortled over it in his dissent. But no one dared point it out.
There are no "good" justices. They're all hiding the big secret of the corporate application of our laws. They strictly apply themselves to this secret in plain sight but refuse to acknowledge it. That's what Roberts played with, too. He ruled that Obamacare is not a tax, because Obamacare is based on the income tax, which is not a tax because you volunteer for it. That's the actual law, and if you have to volunteer for something, then it's not a tax.
That was the heart of Robert's ruling.
The reason no one "beats" the income tax is that they don't know they already supposedly volunteered for it. So all the government has to do is say you didn't do what you freely agreed to do already. That's why you start out with two strikes against you. And since you don't know that, of course, you lose. And since one ever calls the government on this fraud, there's no simple legal way you can claim you didn't volunteer. There should just be something you point to, or they point to, confirming this contractual agreement, but there's not. They just "presume" you volunteered because you reply to their threats. And the courts allow this.
But none of this matters because everyone already "knows" that it's all bullshit. And they'll keep knowing that, because it's far easier to hate Roberts, and hate the system, and curse politicians, than to actually learn how the system really works and cut the monster off with its own laws.
After all, that would take personal risk.
That’s what I originally thought too.
My ‘bone head’ statement was meant to imply he may have put himself in situation where he could be “compromised”.
If so it needs to be quietly investigated and if demonstrated, he needs quietly encouraged to “retire” or publicly face impeachment and prosecution.
Though the “vengeful” side of me wants the book thrown at him for all the damage his “problem” has caused!