Low profile okay for US top judge
America’s top judge, Chief Justice John Roberts, has been teaching a course in Wellington but it was for a select few with $2000 to spare.
His name appears on the lists of the ‘‘most powerful’’ in the world, but even on home turf his public profile is not that high.
He’s not perturbed that one survey suggests that just 12 per cent of Americans could name him as Supreme Court Chief Justice, a role he’s held since 2005.
‘‘We’re not politicians. It’s not a great disappointment to us that people don’t recognise us.
‘‘I’ve seen some of these rankings and Judge Judy always finishes first,’’ he said in a nod to a long time television show.
‘‘People should know about the court, they should know what the court does, they should particularly know that what the court does is different to what congress and the executive does, but it’s not a terribly bad thing that they don’t know who the individuals are.’’
Roberts was in New Zealand to teach a course at Victoria University, with Harvard University Law Professor Richard Lazarus, on the Supreme Court in historical perspective. The $2000-a-head course, with nine hours’ teaching time, was spread over four days.
On Wednesday night he also answered questions from Victoria University dean of law, Professor Mark Hickford, in front of an invitation-only crowd of judges, lawyers, students, and top public servants.
Roberts, 62, said that as a recent graduate he was a clerk for the unassuming Supreme Court Associate Justice William Rehnquist, later Chief Justice.
That judge liked to walk around the grounds of the court talking over cases with his clerk. On those walks they were often stopped by visitors wanting their photograph taken in front of the Supreme Court.
‘‘Dozens and dozens of people had pictures of themselves in front of the Supreme Court around the country with no idea it was taken by a Chief Justice of the United States.’’
Roberts did not speak about the current turmoil in US politics, and he did not take questions from media.
But, the Republican-nominated judge did say that the selection process for US judges, although a good one, had become overly politicised.
‘‘You are not electing a representative so you’re not entitled to know what their views on political issues are.’’
The judges had an impact on political life but they’re supposed to do that as judges, only as necessary to decide the cases, he said.
He said technology was likely to be the most significant challenge facing his court, and society. Established bodies of law would be tested, whether it was patents for microchips, or applying search rules developed for ‘‘kicking down doors’’ in an age when law enforcement had heat imaging that could virtually see through walls.