{"text":[[{"start":5.9,"text":"Those who know and like John Roberts say he’s an “institutionalist” committed to protecting the US Supreme Court. The chief justice’s detractors, on the other hand, describe him as “chiefy” — aloof, and believing that he alone can steer the court through tempestuous political waters."}],[{"start":24.65,"text":"Either way, the 71-year-old has a job that at times seems almost impossible. “He’s got critics on both sides,” a former Roberts clerk says. “And I think in some ways, it’s a little bit of a lonelier place to be.” "}],[{"start":38.4,"text":"In the Supreme Court term that ended this week, Roberts took centre stage, writing the opinions in which the court defied President Donald Trump on tariffs, birthright citizenship and his attempt to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, as well as a landmark ruling that expanded the scope of presidential power."}],[{"start":59,"text":"Born in Buffalo, New York in 1955, Roberts was the only boy of four children born to a steel company executive father and homemaker mother. Early on, the family relocated to a town in Indiana on the shores of Lake Michigan. In an application to a rigorous private Catholic boys’ school, he would write that he wanted to land the “best job by getting the best education”."}],[{"start":83.05,"text":"He didn’t view himself as a conservative until attending Harvard University in the 1970s, where the dominant liberalism came as a culture shock. “I went there and kind of reacted against the orthodoxy that was established there,” Roberts later recalled."}],[{"start":97.2,"text":"Roberts then clerked for two judges, including in 1980 for Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, a conservative whose early solitary dissents earned him the nickname “Lone Ranger” but who later became a consensus builder. "}],[{"start":111.35000000000001,"text":"“I think that John is influenced by his time with and respect for Rehnquist,” says Michael McConnell, a former federal judge who clerked the same year for another justice — and crammed with the future chief for the DC Bar exam."}],[{"start":125.75000000000001,"text":"After stints in two Republican administrations, private practice and as a lower-court judge, Roberts was tapped to join the Supreme Court in 2005 as an associate justice. During his confirmation hearing he famously said that his job was to “call balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat”. Critics, however, say that he does far more than that."}],[{"start":147.4,"text":"Rehnquist died while the nomination was pending, and President George W Bush named Roberts as chief justice. "}],[{"start":154.55,"text":"Former clerks tell the FT he is conscientious, even-tempered and has a very strong sense of who he is. “He does what he feels is correct, knowing that criticism will come,” one of them says. The chief justice throws yearly reunions for his network of apprentices. He’s “demanding” but imparts a “quiet confidence” in his employees, one says. "}],[{"start":175.60000000000002,"text":"Roberts, who is married to Jane Sullivan Roberts, a lawyer turned recruiter, and has two children, has been the chief justice for 20 years. As the composition of the Supreme Court has become more conservative, his vote has become more influential. "}],[{"start":190.35000000000002,"text":"“We do see the emergence of something that can more accurately be called the ‘Roberts Court’, where the chief justice is much more of a defining figure on the court than he had been,” says Ed Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center."}],[{"start":204.60000000000002,"text":"This week, in a decision delivered by Roberts, the court ruled that Trump could fire Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter, upending a decades-old precedent shielding federal agencies from the whims of the White House. The president called the judgment the “Greatest Increase in Presidential Power in the last 100 years”."}],[{"start":224.8,"text":"That decision was the culmination of Roberts’ longstanding project of reining in independent agencies like the FTC, says Thomas Berry, director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies. “This is a classic example of Roberts playing the long game.”"}],[{"start":241.25,"text":"With the power as chief to assign who writes which opinions, Roberts kept for himself a series of key cases that chipped away at the agencies’ influence and independence from the president. The current Oval Office occupant has complicated matters, however. Trump has exerted unprecedented executive power in his second term, yet at key moments the top court has reined him in, with Roberts cobbling together different majorities on all the big decisions."}],[{"start":266.85,"text":"Mike Davis, a close legal ally to Trump who says he worked on Roberts’s nomination, says “everything [Roberts] does is political” down to the order in which this term’s decisions were released."}],[{"start":278.55,"text":"McConnell, the former judge who clerked alongside him, says it’s “ironic” that many of those who say they wish to see an end to political polarisation won’t also give Roberts credit as “the leading voice that’s not polarising in American government today”."}],[{"start":293.45,"text":"“He’s trying to do what so many people say they want,” he adds, “but maybe they only want the other side to do it.”"}],[{"start":301.05,"text":"Over years of criticism, Roberts has defended the court. In March, days after a presidential tirade against judges who rule against him, Roberts said that personal attacks on the judiciary are “dangerous, and it’s got to stop”. But he has never taken a direct swing at Trump. "}],[{"start":318.40000000000003,"text":"And why bother? His tenure will almost certainly outlast the president’s. The chief justice may not see Trump as a “moment that needs to be met”, says Sarah Isgur, author of Last Branch Standing, a book about the modern Supreme Court. “It’s like, ‘I’m going to be here forever — you’ve got two years left’,” she says. “Presidents come and go.”"}],[{"start":345.65000000000003,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1783145358_6214.mp3"}