I'm Elizabeth Slattery and welcome to SCOTUS 101, where we break down what's happening at the Supreme Court, what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government.

This week, I'm joined by Ilya Shapiro from the Cato Institute, and we're going to talk about whether John Roberts is the new swing vote, a few orders and opinions, and I also

sat down with Beth Williams from the Justice Department. Ilya, thanks for joining me.

Good to be back. It's been a while. We'll see if I've sharpened my trivia skills, any.

So let's talk about a few SCOTUS headlines from this week. First up, is John Roberts the new swing vote?

There have been a number of articles about the Chief Justice in light of the fact that he's joined the more liberal members of the court in a handful of recent cases.

But he's not consistently joining the liberal bloc. So, for example, he cited with the liberals in ruling for an Alabama death row

inmate who says his dementia renders him incompetent so the state cannot execute him. But then he voted

to allow Alabama to go forward with the execution of another inmate. This time it was a Muslim

inmate who had requested an Imam be present at the execution. And then Chief Justice

Roberts cited with the liberals to reject the Trump administration's request to reinstate restrictions

on asylum seekers that a lower court had blocked. But he voted to allow the Trump administration's

ban on allowing transgendered individuals to serve in the military to go into effect while there are cases pending in lower courts.

And then finally, he voted to halt Louisiana's law that would require abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital while that case is pending.

But going back a few terms, he dissented from a 2016 decision striking down a somewhat related

Texas law dealing with admitting privileges. So, you know, there always has to be someone in the

middle. But, Ilya, what do you think this means for the court? So I don't think Roberts is,

quote, unquote, evolving or moving left or the next stevens or suitor whoever

uh... he's always been a minimalist he's always been cautious

and his new role as i don't want to call at the swing vote i'll just call it the

median vote

uh... it's it's rare to have the chief justice is's sort of the keeper of the court's institutional

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