Judge Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings to be a Supreme Court justice will take place in the shadow of the nomination of John Roberts to be chief justice 13 years ago.
Roberts was confirmed on a 78-22 vote in 2005. That's the most votes any justice has received for more than two decades. But some buyer's remorse about Roberts has set in since then.
His liberal critics think he hasn't lived up to his promise to the Senate to "call balls and strikes" as a justice. They think that, with rare exceptions, he has instead been batting for the Republicans: voting to narrow affirmative action programs, weaken the Voting Rights Act, subject abortion to restrictions, deregulate campaign finance and so on.
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