Overview of the Term: The Rule of Law & Roberts's Revolution of Restraint

Abstract

In this introduction to a symposium on Chief Justice Roberts’ first term, Professor Kmiec begins with a discussion of how the addition of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito to the Supreme Court resulted in a continuation of the center-right tradition of the Rehnquist-O’Connor era, and he addresses the impact of Justice O’Connor’s retirement on Justice Kennedy’s jurisprudence. Professor Kmiec also evaluates Rehnquist’s final term, determining that, during this term, Rehnquist lost some of the hard earned constitutional advantages in the areas of religious accommodation, federalism, and the protection of property rights. Professor Kmiec ends his article with a discussion of Roberts’s first term as well as Roberts’s and Alito’s judicial approaches. He concludes that the appointment of Roberts and Alito bring to the Court a partnership in favor of judicial restraint and that Roberts’s and Alito’s attitude of humility and the new Chief’s desire and capability to achieve unanimity along with Justice Kennedy’s free thinking ways should mean a less ideological Bench overall.

Keywords: John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Supreme Court, William Rehnquist, judicial restraint

JEL Classification: K10, K49