This is the season for irresponsible presidential speculation.
From Donald Trump to Glenn Beck to various and sundry governors and senators, this is the time for every political name to be floated for president.
Republicans are looking for a presidential candidate who not only can draw distinctions with President Barack Obama on policy — and most of the contenders can — but who can also match Obama in stature.
If Republicans want a candidate who can stand on the stage with Obama and not look small, they may need to look beyond the current possibilities. They’ll need a public figure who is known, respected, and who can compete with the president in gravitas.
Chief Justice John Roberts could be that candidate.
Stature should be a concern for Republicans. Among all the flotsam and jetsam of presidential contenders, few pass the immediate hurdle of presidential feasibility. Roberts, with his judicial credentials and impeccable bearing, would clear it with ease.
Roberts has also emerged as one of Obama’s most consequential adversaries in the past two years, and if Obama continues to attack the Supreme Court, as he did after Citizens United, Roberts might have the motive to run.
A major showdown over the constitutionality of the new health care law could also heighten the tension between Obama and Roberts.
For voters, a Roberts-Obama race would carry the advantage of pitting two of the most cogent defenders of their respective philosophies in a race that would likely take place on a higher intellectual plane than most.
Neither side could argue that their views were inadequately represented, and neither man would likely stoop to character assassination or spurious claims.
Certainly, a Roberts run for president would leave the Supreme Court in uncertain hands.
Roberts’ vote is a crucial one to the conservative bloc on the court, and leaving to run for president would be a risk, since Obama could replace Roberts’ successor and swing the balance of the court toward its liberal bloc.
But Obama would find it difficult to replace Roberts with a judge of a more liberal bent. Any move to replace Roberts would immediately become a campaign issue, and it seems likely that Obama would want to avoid what would be the granddaddy of all confirmation fights in the middle of a presidential campaign.
There is also a sense in which a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court is far more valuable than four or eight years in the White House.
But if Roberts were to run and win, he would certainly be among the most judicially qualified men to ever hold the presidency, and two or three justices nominated by him could do more to shape the future of the court than he could as Chief Justice.
And Supreme Court justices have left their seats to run for president before. Justice Charles Evans Hughes left his position to challenge Woodrow Wilson in 1916, losing narrowly, but perhaps establishing a path for Roberts to follow.
This is largely an exercise in political silliness. Chief Justice Roberts has shown no interest in running for president. It seems clear that he’s already achieved his dream job, and it is a consequential one.
But as what-if scenarios go, this might just be the best Republicans can do.
Reach Will at wmunsil@asu.edu
