And if it comes to a point where he says, 'I can't do the job,' then I think he'll just quit. But we don't know if he's at that point yet.

he's not going to be a pushover or a shrinking violet.

He's not pacing the floor, ruminating on his future. He's focused on doing the court's business, making sure the other justices do their business.

Before Chief Justice Rehnquist, it really was like nine scorpions in a bottle.

It's been awhile since the Supreme Court had any new members, ... And one thing we've seen is that when the Court gets a new member, no matter what that member's views are, it sometimes tends to change the dynamics. When Justice Thomas came on the Court, Justice Souter started voting differently.

It's not the usual thing, but it doesn't strike me as being troubling. It would be a mistake to read it as payback.

It's actually kind of a recent idea that in order to judge a nominee, you had to have tons and tons of paper, ... For most of history it was, you know, someone's nominated, probably a friend of the president ... You had hearings, and in the hearings you asked some questions, and the questions gave you the answers, and that was it. No one asked about how you were going to rule in Roe v. Wade, how you were going to rule in Miranda, whatever.

really did dramatically reshape the conversation about federal power.

Even if the president wasn't up to it in alligators and his approval rating was 90 percent, John Roberts simply is the best guy for the chief justice's job. I think the thought of having John Roberts join him on the court kept the chief going despite his cancer. I think he's probably smiling about it now.

This year, the whole court seems to be willing to go along with clear, concise, yet not very sweeping decisions. Some of these cases had the potential to be controversial, but they are focusing on the issues they agree on.