Eminent Domain

Before I take on any of the weighty issues of today's opinions, I think I'll take a look at a John Roberts puff piece in USA Today. It's actually an interesting look at the Justices and their kids (or lack thereof). It's been over a century since a sitting Chief Justice had young children. The public was introduced to the Roberts kids along with their father. Who can forget Jack's dance party...


Here's the Chief remembering the incident...

"I'm standing there ... thinking about what I'm going to say," Roberts recalled in a speech this spring. "Jack is dancing in front of the spotlights. ... I'm looking at Jane and wondering, 'Why aren't you doing anything?' " Roberts said he agreed later with his wife's assessment that if she had made a move, Jack might have escalated and, Roberts said, "untied the president's shoes."

Aside from strolling down memory lane, the article makes an interesting point about the Chief and fatherhood...

The University of Chicago's Hutchinson says the experience of fatherhood is likely to bring a new dimension to Roberts as one of nine justices deciding the law of the land. Hutchinson says parenthood causes an individual to think about issues such as the quality of schools and Internet predators. "It offers a window into what we worry about in society," Hutchinson said.

It remains to be scene if this perspective will add anything to Roberts' jurisprudence.