Does the Chief Justice Have Too Much Power?

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http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/08/does-the-chief-justice-have-too-much-power/278547/



John Roberts has a way of inserting himself into almost every political setting. He upstaged Barack Obama at his first Inauguration; he made his the most important single vote cast in the 2012 election; he has upended 2014 politics with his opinion gutting the Voting Act. Now it turns out he has assumed a key role in the War on Terror.

So it seems entirely reasonable for The New York Times's Linda Greenhouse to suggest that "we have given the chief justice -- any chief justice, not just this one -- too much to do."

The question is being raised now because recent leaks give us a disturbing look the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The chief justice selects the 11 district judges who serve on this court; his discretion is subject only to a few limits: the judges must come from at least seven appeals-court circuit, one must be a district judge of the District of Columbia, and no fewer than three must live within 20 miles of D.C.

The FISA panel was originally conceived as simply a mechanism to grant warrants for surveillance -- the equivalent of a magistrate who looks at an affidavit from a police officer and then orders a search or seizure. It's an important function, but pretty pedestrian (or as lawyers like to say, "ministerial&quot .

[Lurks Often]

1. Only if you don't agree with his views n/t

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2. that would be incorrect. nt