NYT: Trump's Impeachment Trial a Perilous Duty for Chief Justice

Chief Justice John Roberts’s role at an impeachment trial may be mostly ceremonial, but signs of partisanship could damage the Supreme Court.

Jan. 14, 2020
Updated 4:32 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — When Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. walks out of his chambers at the Supreme Court, crosses First Street and enters the Capitol to preside over President Trump’s impeachment trial, he will leave behind an institution that prides itself on reason and decorum and enter one marked by partisan warfare.

The chief justice’s responsibilities at the trial are fluid and ill-defined, and they will probably turn out to be largely ceremonial. What is certain is that they will be full of peril for his reputation and that of his court.

“It’s not a heavy lift, but it’s going to put him in a very, very unpleasant role,” said Philip Bobbitt, a law professor at Columbia and an author, with Charles L. Black Jr., of “Impeachment: A Handbook.” “I’m sure he’ll get ulcers.”

Any presidential impeachment trial thrusts the chief justice into unfamiliar and unwelcome terrain, said Frank O. Bowman, a law professor at the University of Missouri and the author of “High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump.”

“This one in particular is so poisonous,” Professor Bowman said, “that he’s going to be concerned that any perception of partiality to either side will potentially damage the institutional legitimacy of the court.”

Chief Justice Roberts has plenty on his plate already, much of it related to Mr. Trump. He is working on a Supreme Court docket crowded with divisive issues, including three cases on whether to allow release of Mr. Trump’s financial records and one on Mr. Trump’s efforts to withdraw protection from deportation for young immigrants.