On September 12, 2005, a 50-year-old federal circuit judge sat down in front of a

packed house at the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

John Roberts would face four days of questions during his confirmation hearing to be the next

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

But the most memorable moment came right in his opening statement.

It was a baseball metaphor.

Judges are like umpires.

Umpires don't make the rules.

They apply them.

They make sure everybody plays by the rules, but it is a limited role.

Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire.

It was meant to explain the heart of Roberts' judicial philosophy that the court was above

politics.

And I will decide every case based on the record according to the rule of law without fear

or favor to the best of my ability.

And I will remember that it's my job to call balls and strikes and not to pitch or bat.

At the time the American public generally agreed with Roberts, polling show that confidence

in the Supreme Court was relatively high nearly twice as high as confidence in Congress.

But fast forward 17 years and Chief Justice John Roberts is presiding over a court facing

a very different public perception.

A Gallup poll in early June showed confidence in the Supreme Court had dropped to its lowest

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