Chief Justice Roberts gave the commencement address at Georgetown Law today, and it’s great stuff. He starts out with some very funny lines, and later turns to a very interesting disussion about the importance of writing narrow opinions based on a consensus view of the Justices. Key line: “If it is not necessary to decide more to dispose of a case, in my view, it is necessary not to decide more.” Well worth watching; the whole thing is about 15 minutes long.
You can watch the video here, starting at the 19 minute mark; thanks to Howard for the link.
Orin,
Thanks for passing along the great speech. I wonder what you think about a certain worry I have about the “narrowness” aim. While there is perhaps no necessary connection between them, the narrowness debate seemed at times to be conflated with the rules/standards debate in clashes between, say, Justice Scalia and Justice O’Connor.
Balancing tests, leaving future determinations for the judges, and whatnot, tended to be favored by O’Connor, and this was praised as reflecting a humility in being willing to decide less. I always thought Justice Scalia was more correct in seeing that setting up balancing tests was actually arrogating power to the Court and to judges, and not “humble.”
Should we anticipate more “standards” than “rules” from the Roberts court, or from Roberts himself, or am I wrong to see the two as tending to overlap? I would welcome a more collegial court, but not at the price of favoring standards over rules.
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