WASHINGTON — Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein predicted “people are going to lose rights’’ if the Senate installed John Roberts as the Supreme Court’s chief justice. Democratic Representative John Lewis cautioned that a Roberts court would “no longer hear the people’s cries for justice.”
That was 2005. One decade later, the legacy is looking a little different.
The Supreme Court’s three highest-profile decisions since Roberts became the top justice were all decided in favor of liberals: It rejected two challenges from the right to President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, including one on Thursday, ensuring 6 million people would keep their health care.
On Friday, albeit over Roberts’ strenuous objection, the court granted same-sex couples the right to marry, affecting many millions more.
This record has left conservatives spitting fire about a Republican Supreme Court pick who betrayed their cause. Democrats, meanwhile, celebrated in the streets of Washington for two straight days, as Obama is suddenly on a winning streak.
