A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days

Dahlia Lithwick oftentimes writes inane stuff. But I have no doubt whatsoever that this is entirely on the mark:

Justice John Paul Stevens opens this morning's oral argument with a tribute to William H. Rehnquist. He was, he says, truly "first among equals," and then he quotes from Thomas Gray: "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air." He concludes by welcoming Roberts, who, he notes, "argued 39 times before this court." He smiles and adds: "Which exceeds the combined experience of the rest of us."

Roberts makes no speeches. He closes the 2004 term and opens the 2005 term, swears in the new Supreme Court Bar members, and announces oral argument in IBP Inc v. Alvarez and Tum v. Barber Foods Inc. The first case is not exactly a blockbuster—the issue in these consolidated appeals is whether the Fair Labor Standards Act requires that employees (in this case in the meat-processing industry) be compensated for the time they spend doffing and donning protective clothing and walking to their workstations. It's a case in which dry statutory construction bumps up against dry conflicting case law. Sizzling exchanges include lines like this one, from oral advocate Carter Phillips: "But let's not forget 79.7(g) footnote 49!"

Or this one, also from Phillips: "But this will have effects for res judicata and collateral estoppel."

So, how does Roberts look in the chief justice's chair? As though he were born to it, quite frankly. He is clearly prepared for argument. He listens intently to his colleagues' questions and watches them while they speak. His first exchange with Phillips shores up his credentials as a strict constructionist [I weep with joy. Seriously.--ed.]: "So, your approach introduces a third concept … and that's nowhere in the statute." He goes back and forth several times in this first colloquy and is quickly confident enough to retort: "That's my question." He juggles counsels' names, time limits, and a stack of briefs as though he's been doing it all his life. The fact that Roberts' umbilical cord was being cut when most of his colleagues were already practicing law is irrelevant. He is absolutely ready to lead them.

Via Ann Althouse, who says quite properly, "Hyper-competent. That's the way I like my Supreme Court Justices."