Roberts’ Charisma
RedState.org has an interesting analysis of John Roberts’ arguments before the Supreme Court:
These results are undoubtably influenced by the type of cases that Roberts would generally be involved in; few of these cases involve social issues. However, in the cases that were brought before the Court where the result was not unanimous and Roberts was involved, it is clear that Justice Stevens was not often swayed by his arguments. However, the percentage of non-unanimous cases where Justice Kennedy sided with Roberts’ arguments is notable. The sample size is small, but there is some indication that a Justice Roberts might have considerable influence on Justice Kennedy– the primary swing vote on the court.
So, Roberts may have enough charisma to possibly have a significant impact on the middle-of-the-road Justices. That makes his nomination and confirmation that much more important and interesting.
