Better Know the Impeachment Process 12.03.19 "Here Comes the Judge"

John Roberts, Chief Justice of the United States

On any procedural question, including admissibility of evidence, the chief justice will make a ruling, but that ruling may be reversed by a majority vote of the senators present. After all evidence is in, argument will take place. 

Black, Charles L., Jr..& Bobbit, Philip, Impeachment: A Handbook, New Edition (p. 13). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition. 

Two crucial points here. First, how will Chief Justice Roberts conduct himself in the anticipated impeachment trial of Trump? I wager that he'll try to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. He's never been a trial judge, and here we're talking about a trial as opposed to oral arguments before an appellate tribunal. Trials can be wild and wooly; appeals much less so. However, I do think that Roberts, despite his conservative pedigree and disposition, will strive to appear fair and impartial. He's shown in the past his concern for the Supreme Court as an institution and for the rule of law in general, so I have some hopes for him. However, remember that I had similar thoughts about William Barr and how misinformed those hopes were. 

Second, no matter what Roberts might rule, in the end, Mitch McConnell runs the show. He and a (Republican) majority can vote to override a ruling by the Chief Justice. For instance, suppose that Republicans want to bring in Hunter Biden and Joe Biden to try to connect them to Ukranian corruption, the dearth of evidence in support of such a finding notwithstanding. (Facts haven't been getting in the way of Republicans of late, following the example of their Dear Leader.)  In a normal trial (and this ain't gonna be no normal trial), a judge would likely exclude such evidence as irrelevant. The Chief Justice could rule that such evidence is not relevant to the issue of whether President Trump acted wrongly in attempting to coerce an investigation of the Bidens regardless of what they'd done or not done. (A correct and sensible ruling, in my opinion.) But Mitch and the gang could overrule the CJ. Would they? I'd never accuse McConnell of being shy about unending norms and grabbing power. So this will be something to watch.