Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is not the revolutionary that conservative activists want him to be.
He moves slower than they want, sides with liberals more than they want, and trims his sails in ways they find maddening. But he is still deeply and unmistakably conservative, pulling the law to the right — at his own pace and in his own image.
Why it matters: The idiosyncrasies that shape Roberts’ approach to high-profile cases are becoming more clear over time. And because the Supreme Court has the final say on almost every political issue of any consequence, those idiosyncrasies often become the law of the land.